Flaying
Commandments - Violated
4.8
Brutal death metal bands crop up in eastern Europe the way psoriasis crops up on crust punks, and so here we have another contribution to the ever-crowded field in the form of Flaying’s first full-length—and first release—Commandments – Violated. Sad to say, there’s virtually nothing of note to be had on this ten-track excursion, as these Latvians stick like epoxy to splattery death metal conventions and do not a damn thing to distinguish themselves from their incomprehensibly-logo’d peers.
Familiar with blastbeats? How about gurgle-growled vocals and squelching, chunky grooves? Humorous samples and chromatic scale runs ring a bell? I mean, fuck it, have you ever heard Suffocation or a Suffocation clone? These guys claim to base their style around a blend of the aforementioned New York legends, Cryptopsy, and Dying Fetus, but this really just sounds like Suffo with fewer brain cells and more of a poorly-worded goregrind fixation. Most of these songs blow by in about two minutes, and consist of unrelated strings of downtuned, faceless riffs. There are fast tremolo-picked ones. There are slow, chugging, messy ones. There are, in fact, chaotic single-note ones as well. The aesthetic is as brutal as you please, but there are so many bands doing this exact style in a more memorable fashion that it’s impossible to keep your mind from wandering off to the catalogues of Flaying’s various more interesting peers.
I almost feel like I’m giving this band short shrift by saying so little about them, but fact of the matter is that there’s very little to say. Commandments – Violated is more or less cleanly executed, but has virtually nothing to offer as far as innovation or compelling songwriting is concerned. Props to this band for playing metal in a country that’s not known for its extensive metal scene, but if they want to achieve more than hometown-hero status, they’ll need to put a lot more work into their craft.
