Nader Sadek is a visual artist who's worked with almost all the musicians that accompany him on this album.  Having a great pool to help him create In the Flesh, definitely sets the foundations for an awesome death metal release.  But the musicians outshine Nader Sadek’s personal message.  With members from Morbid Angel and Cryptopsy, Nader Sadek steps in with his 'visual artist' background and tries to steer the ship in a singular, message-driven concept espousing his disdain for the petroleum industry.  While that is all fine and well, it comes off as a bit pretentious, maybe even a little insulting to fans that aren’t looking for a message. 

Pretentiousness aside, how the songs are formulated and brought to life is most important, not the idea of how it will translate as a piece of visual art.  They contain all the things that many of the great artists from bands such as Morbid Angel and Cattle Decapitation deliver.  Technical mastery from Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy) on the drums and guitar wizardry from Rune Erickson (ex-Mayhem) lend the musical credibility needed for In the Flesh to be taken seriously.  Appearances by Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation) and Steve Tucker (ex-Morbid Angel) help round out the vocals.

The majority of the tracks on In the Flesh are good examples of technical death metal.  But the album is broken up by 30-second to minute long interludes.  The first track “Awakening,” for example, is an interlude practically speaking but with the Gregorian-esque vocal hum and train clatter, which don't serve a real musical purpose and are more of a visual aesthetic, is hard to take seriously.  Another example of this is the track “Exhaust Capacitor,” which is clearly a continuation of “Awakening”, but serves as a jarring breakup of the album instead of helping flow seamlessly like an interlude should.  If the interludes were longer and offered more musically, the experimental side of In the Flesh would come across more clearly.  But if they were taken out it wouldn’t change the way the album works.

The song that really stands out on In the Flesh, is “Nigredo in Necromance.”  It goes beyond the barrier of death metal.  It has an almost drone sensibility with the tone of the guitars howling against the drums. The melody in the song is much more melancholy and brooding versus minor sounding and technically heavy favored riffs.  After listening to the entire album, “Niegredo in Necromance” is like a diver taking that first inhale of oxygen after swimming the depths of the ocean.

Fans of Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy, and Cattle Decapitation will find no shortage of bowel eviscerating death metal songs in In the Flesh.  They might even enjoy the interludes from a progressive standpoint.  But, on the other hand, fans of the Sunn O)))) variety might not take to the avant garde wanna-be concept that tries to flourish on this album.  The visual artist’s concept brought together some really great musicians that might have never played together and for that we are thankful.  Next time spare us the lame duck message and give us more great death metal music.

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Written by Walter Peist

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