Pupil Slicer : "Fleshwork"

 

This British band is back with a catchier take on the grind-core styled metal core they hit you with on their last album, as more sounds are layered into the stomping fray on this, which has more of a hard-core feel. They hammer at you with more aggression on the second song. There are some marginally more melodic moments that their spastic excursion leads them across. When they slow down to a more deliberate pace, it takes on a sludge-ridden weight. The vocals are screamed with a similar anger. Some of the noise layered around their barrage begins to take on a more predictable tone. 

"Innocence" shows they can write a catchy song when they set their minds to it. It is also a little darker, so perhaps that is why it resonates the most with me of the album's first four songs. The bass line provides a great backbone for it. Even with layers of sonic draping, it feels like a darker, more thoughtful hardcore song. As chaotic as "Black Scrawl" gets for these guys, it's still not far removed from what Converge does regularly. In fact, "Nomad" could almsot be a Converge song. 

It might come as little surprise that I feel the moment they try to sneak melody in on the title track is one of this album's strongest. Her more sung vocals tend to fall toward the back of the mix and are buried in the explosions that come. I am not sure why the rest of the music press has been so intent on dressing this up as another sub-genre when this is a hardcore album. The sung vocals step up more on the last song, but they are not calming down. The rage in that place between screamo and black metal.They jam off into a weird breakdown that works well.  I will give this album a 9 as the songwriting is more focused this time around. 

 

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