REVIEWS - "A Beautiful Sickness" CD (page 10)

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Metal Fanatix - (93 out 100) by Thomas Mitchell. January 2005

Whew!!!! This one will knock the crap outta your asshole!! I know, because I nearly did shit myself. <I feel better now> Project: Failing Flesh is a fresh start for famed member Eric Forrest (Voivod, E-Force) and co-founders Kevin 131 and Tim Gutierrez. Imagine Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory, and Voivod all at the top of their game with something thrown in a little meaner! There is technicality, atmosphere, sophistication, balls, and oddly for this day and age... originality!! Granted, there are parts of their music reminiscent of other bands and so-on, so-forth. P:FF present some very fresh twists within their songs. One I like a lot is "Scene of a Crime" which starts out similar to Fear Factory, works it way towards a classic-Meshuggah style riff, then gets melodic and atmospheric.... and back again. This is to be expected on just about every track. At times, you could almost swear to hear some black metal. So you see- P:FF pretty much cover anything and everything in the main metal genre without submitting to any one style of play. If ever there is a chance you, the reader, will trust me – find this damn CD and play the hell out of it!!!

Max Metal - (8.5 out of 10) by Fiti. January 2005

Difícil definir a este combo italiano. Podríamos partir de la base thrash que alimenta a todos sus temas, pero aderezada aquí y allá con toques black y death. Lo importante es que este álbum suena muy bien, con una velocidad constante que se ve arropada por unos teclados que cumplen su papel con eficacia pero sin alardes.

Este grupo sabe aportar los momentos necesarios a cada canción. Por ejemplo, la base rítmica se aplica con fiereza para darle una contundencia sobre natural a las partes potentes, y si lo que se quiere son partes lentas y estremecedoras, un juego con cellos y piano hará que un escalofrío recorra tu cuerpo.

A ello hay que sumarle algún toque vanguardista que me hace pensar en este grupo como en una vuelta de tuerca al sonido Pantera. Para llegar a lo más alto creo que les falta un poquito de definición en su sonido, aunque quizá ese defecto sea su mayor virtud.

Live4Metal - by Metal George Pacheco. February 2005

Man, no matter what I did, I never seemed to be able to get into Eric Forrest’s voice at all. Whatever enjoyment I could perhaps derive from Forrest-era Voivod or E-Force was just eliminated when the man opened his mouth. No offence to him, but I just couldn’t get behind it. Enter Project: Failing Flesh, which is by far the man’s best work, best performance, and best, er..project. Their debut LP, “A Beautiful Sickness” serves as direct middle ground for the man’s career, as it combines the futuristic techno-metal tendencies of Forrest’s former outfit (Voivod), with the Slayer-worship neo-thrash of E-Force. The songs fly fast and furious on this 10 tracker, with an emphasis on modern day syncopation and one-two Swede-beat thrash. It is only past the half way point on songs like “Entrance Wound”, “Long Silent Voices”, and especially “Taste of the Lie” where the experimentation sets in and things really begin to happen for the band. The rockin’ traditionalism hits head on with creepy soundtrack symphonics, and the result is actually something very original and inventive. I’m actually at a loss to describe what some of these songs sound like…perhaps an Amtrak train wreck with members of Therion, Darkane, and Voivod on board? All I know is that these elements elevate the band from also-ran thrashers to futuristic extreme metal heroes nipping at Red Harvest’s heels, and I like it! Don’t think the band are leaving the elder influences behind, however, because tagged onto this release is a killer cover of the underrated Venom classic, “Warhead”! This only serves as the icing on the cake to an album, which surprised and confounded me. “A Beautiful Sickness” isn’t for everyone, but it is definitely a trip for those seeking some originality and diversity within their extreme metal.

La Terre Des Immortels - (15 out of 20) by Count D. December 2004

Et bien vive le thrash: surtout quand il est fait par maître Eric Forrest (ex-Voïvod, E-Force), et que le résultat donne un mélange finalement inattendu de violence maîtrisée et de surpassement de style pour atteindre des sphères plus ambient et expérimentales. Un premier essai qui se veut évidemment super convaincant, et même au niveau du concept –plutôt étrange- tout est étudié. On pourrait presque penser que Project: Failing Flesh réinvente ou plutôt remanie les acquis d’un style musical qui ne demande qu’à devenir amorphe et instablement destructeur.

De manière très variée d’un titre à l’autre, l’album est composé de dix titres qui abordent un thrash puissant ô combien précis, produit d’une main de maître. Produit, enregistré et mixé directement par Kevin131, donc pas de pression d’un quelconque label, le son de A Beautiful Sikness est tout simplement excellent: aiguisé, précis, profond. On retrouve tout le long de cette œuvre des influences magistrales comme Meshuggah, Strapping Young Lad, et bien sûr Voïvod, notamment dans des titres comme Dementia Pugilistica. Mais Project: Falling Flesh ne s’arrête pas à l’exécution d’un art instrumental qu’il maîtrise déjà. Planet Dead montre déjà quelques composantes d’ambiance angoissantes. 9MM Movie, qui se suit comme la B.O. d’un film, fait appel à un violon malade, tordu par un impact de balle qui a dû faire mal à certains.

Des essais instrumentaux modernes viennent faire vivre au son de pianos et d’orchestre le titre Long Silent Voice. La fin n’a plus rien à voir avec le début, mais tout est mené de main de maître pour que le son et l’image collent parfaitement dès la première écoute. Les trois malades mentaux se permettent aussi d’inclure à leur musique une dimension indus/electro. Taste Of The Lie est un excellent titre qui va dans ce sens, proposant une lourdeur à la SUP et un jeu de voix torturé dans les tons saturés. Les rythmiques et l’ambiance continuellement décollée grâce à cette présence sonore cybernétique nous enferment dans un monde froid et médical, comme le reste de l’album, d’ailleurs.

Même dans des titres plus classiques, Project: Failing Flesh montre toute son aptitude à y inclure un fond à la fois lourd et malade. La puissance du chant de Forrest n’est plus à prouver, et convient particulièrement au concept de l’album, très médical et malsain. Certains auraient peut-être, compte tenu du style musical frôlant le death metal, attendu un chant plus caverneux ou truqué. Finalement, on se rend vite compte que ces artifices sont dispensables et que la seule hargne vocale du sieur suffit à insuffler la dose suffisante au décollage immédiat. Déjà, Project: Failing Flesh met un grand coup avec ce A Beautiful Sikness, même si la pochette est plutôt banale et ne représente que partiellement l’étendue de la richesse musicale proposée dans cette galette. Il n’en reste pas moins qu’une porte est largement ouverte, et que si ce n’est pas celle de la révolution totale, elle permettra à l’agressivité et aux idées futures originale de se propager dans notre monde, pas encore assez malade ni torturé génétiquement.

Peacedogman.com - by Peacedogman. March 2005

As I sit here and let the staggering riffs in PFF's "9mm Movie" smash through my consciousness like falling chunks of concrete, all I can think of is Crest Ultra-White. Or perhaps Improved Formula Dawn Liquid. No, this isn't one of those "corporate sounding" albums, so don't even go there. Why do people reach for things like Crest Ultra-White? Sure, it has nifty packaging, but deep down people aren't idiots. The cool packaging gets your attention, but you throw 'em in the cart because you detect some sort of improvement over a classic formula. Something has already worked for you in the past is now enhanced in some way, and that's down-right irresistible.  

Project: Failing Flesh is a three-piece band, formed by Virginian metal maestros Tim Gutierrez and Kevin 131, along with former Voivod throat man Eric Forrest. Obviously this is a labor of love for these guys, because the tunes on this disc hit with the same impact as a hair dryer casually dropped into your bathtub. Sure, there's remnants of classic Noise-era bands (for example the "To Mega Therion" flavored string arrangements in the above-mentioned "9MM Movie"), but for the most part, this disc is a celebration of 90s metal greats like Ministry, Prong, Carcass, and Godflesh. I was most impressed by the arrangements, alternating atonal piano lines and scalding metallic blasts, as evidenced in "Long Silent Voices". The production is razor-sharp, especially considering the fact that the band produced it themselves. Plus, the whole affair is held together by the band's affinity for themes of science and medicine. The liner notes include some interesting views on the question of harvesting organs from terminally ill or comatose patients, and some general information on the worldwide shortage of such donors. But just when you think these guys are out to save the world, they smack you with a scalding rendition of Venom's "Warhead". I think I'm in love. At any rate, grab this baby and throw it in your cart. We'll throw in a new mountain fresh formula and the cleaning power of baking soda to make it worth your while.

Darksoul VII - by darksoul. March 2005

In early 2003, three men entered a recording studio for an experiment; they emerged with "A Beautiful Sickness". Project: Failing Flesh is a Virginia based extreme metal band with heavy Thrash roots and their debut album is an impressive one. Recorded and Engineered by the band's own Kevin 131, they were able to keep the entire production within the band. In September 2003, they signed to Dutch label Karmageddon Media and "A Beautiful Sickness" was unleashed on the world a year later.

This album really wastes no time. "A Beautiful Sickness" is the first track on the album and pounds out a quick rhythm intro and cuts into a mid paced chug beat reminiscent of Bay-Area thrash metal. An organ backed midbreak driven by blast beats break up the monotony of this first track and really push it beyond its limits. "Planet Dead" follows. Another rhythm based intro, though much different than its predecessor, leads into an eclectic guitar riff backed by heavy drums. A good use of the syncopated double kicks adds to the air of brutality, especially during its lapses of straight 16th notes. Blast beats and speed picking broken up by chug rhythms and Death-influenced guitar melodies create a good, multi-layered song. Third on the album is "9mm Movie". A much slower song than the previous, track three is the "creepy" song. Its lack of speed and the use of keyboards show off the doom side of this trio while an actual viola strums a mix of clean melody and schizophrenic string screams and squeals. Think "Psycho". The following track is entitled "Scene of the Crime". With a feel extremely similar to something off of Fear Factory's "Demanufacture", this track holds a very mechanical essence. A nice, slower, more epic riff adds a bit of "je ne sais quoi" before exploding again into the engine like thunder of the opening riff. "Entrance Wound" is next and continues with the Fear Factory feel, though this time mixed with a bit of Exodus, before bursting into a very thick chorus complete with piano and angered screams.

Sixth on the album is "Long Silent Voices". This song hops right in with all instruments and a bit too much keyboard in my opinion. Luckily, the keyboards subside to make way for the vocals. More great use of piano can be heard during the midbreak after the organ section. Next is "Dementia Pugilistica", an angry track filled to the brim with speed picking, powerful drums, and purely vengeful vocals. "Taste of the Lie" follows with a bit more of an electronic sound. Guitars are backed by random electronic beats while vocals generally associated with newer Dimmu Borgir fill the gaps. Though it is probably the least heavy song on the album, I really enjoyed its Industrial Metal feel. The last original track of the album is "Highwire Act". An extremely slow beginning gets shattered by brutally fast blast beats which make way for a very rock influenced verse. This would be the proverbial "radio song". The end of the song mirrors its beginning with blast beasts subsiding for a slow, heavy outro. The final song on the album is a cover of Venom's "Warhead". Though well done, it's not the original and really can't compare.

The recording quality of this album is truly top notch. Every instrument comes through with a brightness that is hard to find in self-produced albums. The drums, piano, and viola are worthy of special mention as they all succeed at retaining the warmth of those instruments. If any of these are electronic, they did a great job at fooling me. The performance is truly professional the entire way through. Only the vocals sound out of place in rare instances, though this is mostly because I prefer the harsher, more death metal style vocals.

"A Beautiful Sickness" is an impressive album and a great addition to any metal collection. It will please fans of progressive metal; thrash metal, and any metalhead who likes angry music with a little uniqueness to it. This is not, however, for fans of the purely brutal styles of death and black metal. Check them out; you'll be glad you did.

Fishcom Collective - by Upchuck Undergrind. March 2005

Project: Failing Flesh is truly a modern metal masterpiece. The astounding stylistic variations that occur during the playing time of "A Beautiful Sickness" are surprising and bespeak loads of talent. Fronted by former Voivod vocalist Eric Forrest, PFF hammers out a cutting edge presentation of metal that embraces both the heavy and the beautiful. Tight, sleek, pounding thrash riffs with semi-grinding vocals give way to moodier but still heavy gothic moments with strong, melancholic music backing the tightly woven guitars and always-on-target drumming. A band that brings metal to near perfection and manages to reference death, thrash, black and goth all in one musical entity.

Bogus Rendition - by Justin Curtsinger. Issue #3. March 2005

Project: Failing Flesh are a band I’d say is reminiscent to Meshuggah more then anyone, but there are sounds of old Fear Factory, Red Harvest, Alchemist, and even a thrash influenced side kinda like that of the Haunted’s first two albums in there as well. Taking the above as a foundation, P:FF create an album of many layers for the ear to explore new territory with each listen. The songs seem to have no interest in taking a path that one might first suspect them of, and have a mind of their own. These guys are obviously very good musicians and are able to blend industrial with thrash, melodic ambiance and math metal almost seamlessly, not to mention the very crisp, clean production on this album. Highly recommended for fans of any of the above mentioned bands.

HorrorwoodBabbleOn - (4.5 out of 5) by TB Monstrosity. April 2005

What do you get when you align forces with a former Voivod vocalist (Eric Forrest), former E-Force guitarist (Tim Gutierrez) and instrumentalist/producer Kevin 131? You get Project: Failing Flesh. And what, dear reader, is Project: Failing Flesh you ask? It's one huge mindfuck of a band, and one huge mind fuck to try and even categorize. But, since Mr. Vermin sends me these nifty promos out with his own postage money [Actually, I have compromising Polaroids of my mail carrier so I fly for free, but think whatever makes you happy, bro!], I'll do my best to meet the daunting task ahead.

Throughout ten songs, we're treated to some of the most innovative death metal I've heard in ages. If you will, imagine Fear Factory's cyber sensibilities (i.e. start-stop riffing with just the right amount of industrial touches amongst atmospheric keyboards) colliding with Dark Tranquility and Edge of Sanity's Swede metal, and you're on the right track. Forrest's vocals do little to diversify the songs via a one dimensional bark, but we're not talking Pavaratti here.

When he does let up on the throat abuse, there are little flourishes of clean vocals that surprise, are actually on key and not sounding as if they have been pumped through a million studio effects. The best example of this can be found in the bludgeoning "Planet Dead". Project: Failing Flesh are also not afraid to pepper their arrangements with the trademark speed and blast of death metal, but also with midpaced churn n' chug on "9mm Movie". Violins and cello (whether sampled or not, I can't really tell) appear in a handful of tracks as well, but they don't serve as melodic overtures, they enhance the mood of the tracks with off-kilter playing and dissonance.

I can't help but wonder why the band included a cover of the Venom (ahem) classic "Warhead" here, but they do handle it capably. Personally, I've never been a big fan of the band. A Beautiful Sickness is lethal stuff folks. I don't know if I've done a good job trying to let you in on where the Project: Failing Flesh are coming from musically, but I've always been of the mindset that instant gratification from a record is much more overrated than actually having to sit down and take more than one listen. Project: Failing Flesh demand that kind of attention, and I was not disappointed in the least. Is there new "life" to be injected into such a stale genre as death metal? Well, these fierce Virginians are making a case of it, and damned if they haven't brought something fresh and new to the table in the process....

Earcandy/ Punkrock Theory/ Flex Your Head - (4 out of 5) by Mike SOS. May 2005

Mechanically enhanced metal is what Project: Failing Flesh brings to the table, as the outfit’s 10-track release aptly showcases a group that knows its way around different genres of metal. From New England metalcore to industrial metal clangs and bangs to Bay Area thrash-a-thons, A Beautiful Sickness covers all of the bases with depth and conviction, although it’s safe to say that this trio mainly fall somewhere in between the progressiveness of Voivod and Strapping Young Lad with the technical leanings of Fear Factory seeping through. Heavy, pensive, but at times a bit too far out in left field for the average Joe, A Beautiful Sickness is an interesting listen for those that seek a bit of adventure.

In Depth - (7 out of 10) by Anthony Pagano. May 2005

Gotta love it when a 3 piece makes more noise than you think is possible! Project: Failing Flesh is one of them! Eric Forrest (vocals), Tim Gutierrez (instruments), Kevin 131 (instruments) are the core and driving force behind their Candlelight Records debut "A Beautiful Sickness". The title track opens up the album and by the mid-way point of the track, they've gone through at least 3 structural changes that are sure to have you thinking, "Are we in the same track?" "Planet Dead" starts off a bit easier with a violin/keyboard combination running over a slowly building rhythm. Soon enough the thick pounding drums add themselves in, the pace is doubled and the roller coaster has pulled out of the station. The droning guitars that intro "9mm Movie" sound like they could easily pass for the backdrop of any one of a host of Friday The 13th scenes as Jason chases his would-be victim through a forest. The track itself is a slow grinder, quite the departure from the previous two tracks. "Scene Of The Crime" wakes things back up quickly with a very Fear Factory/electronic approach. No, there's not something else playing in the background, that IS a piano that you hear shining through the chugga-chugga heaviness of "Entrance Wound"! The trend of "one thing that really sticks out" in just about every track continues on with the evil piano/orchestra breakdown on "Long Silent Voices"! "Dementia Puglistica" creeps along in various degrees of speed before the sludgish "Taste The Lie" slides in. Kind of a KMFDM/Ministry slow type of grinder with all sorts of effects and feedback to rattle your eardrums. "Highwire Act" trolls along at a medium pace with a bunch of string bends to keep your attention for it's duration. Another of the "slow and evil" variety closes out this quick 40 minute debut effort with the repetitive audio clip of "The power of Christ compels you" from The Exorcist. The album gets off to a quick start but things shift into a lower gear for the final third of the effort. For all the latest news and info check out the Project: Falling Flesh website.

Brutallica - (8.5 out of 10) by Tsvetan Rachev. Issue #10. Spring/Summer 2005

A metal project featuring Voivod's voice Eric Forrest and Kevin 131 who has worked with real pop stars like Madonna and Seal?! Now that's interesting to hear. "A Beautiful Sickness" is everything but not an ordinary album! This is so called "modern 21st Century Metal" - a mix between Thrash riffs and Industrial effects. It sounds much like Ministry plus some Voivod touches. The production is fautless. Eric Forrest does his best shouting from a long time ago. The last track is an original interpretation of Venom's classic "Warhead" but made in a far more psycho way. Do not miss that album - this will appeal to everyone into the Industrial / Metal genre!

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