Style: Atmospheric death metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: The realization of all the potential the band has shown, spacy death metal at it's finest
Thoughts: When hearing The Harvest Wombs for the first time I was mildly impressed. The album showed a ton of energy and some genuinely creative riffing, especially in the title track. It was really lacking in a few areas though - mainly consistency. The band was seemingly addicted to start/stop riffing and it held the album back.
The Flesh Prevails came out a few years later and it's like the band was listening to my concerns. The start/stop riffing is still present but it's worked in so much better to the songs. The band also leaned into the slide guitar leads more creating both a unique sound as well as an incredible atmosphere. Seriously, this is some intense stuff with an equally intense atmosphere.
The way that this album presents itself is so effortless. Everything seems to come naturally to the band, no transition feels out of place, no riff is incredibly jarring. Even when they go back and fourth between the clean guitars and the intense death metal nothing feels out of place... it simply works.
I missed the initial release of the album on vinyl, and I was not going to pay 200 bucks for a second hand copy of it. When they announced the repress I ordered it immediately. The fact that it's remastered is secondary.
The remaster does bear mentioning though, there are some small differences between the two releases. The first being that the atmosphere is not quite as immediately present in the remaster as it is in the original. The guitars though are clearer and produce a fuller sound overall than they did in the original release. Between the two though I think I prefer the origonal, if nothing else but for the atmosphere.
Fallujah is a band unique in death metal. They started out with some potential, and by their second album all of that potential came to be. With their third album they would perfect it before the vocalist left and they seemingly lost their guiding light.
Written September 9th 2024
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