REVIEWS - "A Beautiful Sickness" CD (page 3)
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Metal Grave - (9 stars of 10) by Rob Hudson. issue 2, April 2003
More metal from Virginia. This time with vocals courtesy of a Canadian, Phobos-era Voivod singer Eric Forrest. Hints of Voivod do surface on this disc but this band really mixes things up. Never content to just riff away in predictable 4/4 time signatures and throwing an array of styles at the listener really made this one of the more surprising and killer listens for me. The aptly titled "9mm Movie" comes to mind as a favorite. Based on a slow, simple, creeping riff and featuring a haunting viola solo, I can almost close my eyes and see the subject matter of the lyrics unfolding. The song is something like a 21st century Celtic Frost might do. Other standouts are "Planet Dead" with it's tribal intro and early Slayer type riffing and "Entrance Wound" with it's forceful 5/4 verse riff and sci-fi/techno keyboard line in the chorus. A true to the original cover of Venom's "Warhead" closes out the disc and I would have liked to hear something different attempted with this song but that is a minor criticism. I certainly recommend this outstanding debut to any forward thinking fan of modern death metal. With it's solid vocals, riffing, and variety, it should appeal to fans with tastes along the lines of Meshuggah, SYL, Phobos-era Voivod, Prong, etc. I eagerly await hearing much more from Project: Failing Flesh in the future.
The Darkest Hours - (80 out of 100) by Patrick Dumas. November 2003
After his departure from Voivod, Eric Forrest formed E-Force, but I should say I was very disappointed with the result. P: FF is the opposite! I really love it at first listen! P: FF are playing thrash metal with Fear Factory influences (example: the song 'Scene of the Crime') because of the tempo and electro sample. Rhythm on some track remember me Meshuggah. Forrest is stronger than ever behind the mic. One of my favorite track is the ultimate dark song '9mm Movie', the violin is so dark. Man this is a creepy song! The keyboard is something really important in this band cause it give the unique atmosphere. The dark atmosphere. The piano sound in "Entrance Wound' sound so weird but I like it weird! The majestic groovy beat of 'Long Silent Voices'... definitely a song to bang your head on! A good song that seem to come from another world, 'Taste of the Lie' is another weird song that sound good! You also get the Venom song "Warhead' and let me tell you this is a good song! Bottom line: Good melodies, unique sound effects, and song structure, straight ahead thrash metal, extreme music element with blast beat and aggressive death vocals, etc. A very good effort!
Soul Killer - by Neil Blevins. November 2003
Rooted strongly in the tech metal sector (or math metal, depending on your preference), Project: Failing Flesh incorporates some of the vibe of a simpler Meshuggah with the symphonic elements of Anacrusis' "Screams and Whispers" album. Basically, it's thrash with a few blast beats thrown in now and again, and some keyboard and string elements. Overall this combination proves to be quite effective. It was actually a nice surprise, putting the CD into my player I wasn't really expecting something this good. Production is excellent, it's self produced but better that most big name studio recordings out there. Riff wise, some complex time signature stuff with some more chugging riffs, very tight, complex drums but nothing unnecessarily technical, vocals are screamed throughout. If I had one knit it would be that a few of the songs tend to meander a bit too much, the songwriting could be just a tad tighter, but that's something that comes with age and experience. Ok, two knits, the name of the band is bit long, you want something snappier so you can chant it at concerts with ease, that ain't gonna happen here :-) Anyways, I'll be very interested hearing more from this band in the future, this CD is well worth grabbing. Watch out for this band in the future.
Fleshrites/SickNET - (8.75 out of 10) by JM Blanco. December 2003
+Published in Spanish. An English version is below.
Describir la música de
Project: Failing Flesh es una árdua tarea para la mayoría de personas, debido
a la complejidad y variabilidad estilistica que presenta este trio
estadounidense, recientemente fichado por Karmaggedon Media (ex-Hammerheart
Records). Sus músicos, Tim Gutierrez y Kevin 131 a los instrumentos y Eric
Forrest a las voces nos inundan con un post-apocaliptico death metal con grandes
dosis de música industrial derivada del thrash. Desde voces y ritmos a lo Killing Spree, a patrones ritmicos cercanos a Ministry
o Pitchshifter y mezclados con Destruction y algo de Morbid Angel, Voivod e
incluso ambientes desesperadamente condenados al estilo Aborym, junto a Paradise
Lost, dados por unos sintetizadores al estilo Hammond a veces. Aunque no solo
podrás observar este instrumentos, sino también cellos, pianos y otros que
prefiero que oigas por ti mism@.
Como podreis observar, menos estar cerrados de mente, cualquier cosa!. Y el caso
es que la simbiosis de sonidos y ambientes electrónico-metaleros es genial y
original, lo cual aumenta considerablemente mi opinión sobre estos tres
monstruos de la creación musical, que incluso se atreven a versionear el
clasico "Warhead" de los ingleses Venom, tocandola, si cabe, todavía
más agonizantemente despiadada que la original.
Retorcidamente buenos y originales. Es tu deber escucharlos si te crees con
agallas suficientes para una sesión de música de este tipo. Este cd esta limitado a 300
copias, puesto que en el 2004, saldrá la nueva
versión con el artwork cambiado.
Describing the music from
Project: Failing Flesh is a so hard task for the main part of society, due to
the complex and wide range of styles they mix on the CD, this US trio, recently
signed by Karmaggedon Media (ex-Hammerheart Records). Their musicians, Tim
Gutierrez and Kevin 131 on the instruments, and Eric Forrest on vocals, dive us
into a post-apocalyptic death metal very high on thrash-origined industrial
music. From voices and rhythms as Killing Spree, to
rhythms patterns near to Ministry
or Pitchshifter and mixed with Destruction and some from Morbid Angel, Voivod,
and desperately doomed ambients such as Aborym and Paradise Lost, given by
Hammond-like synthesizers. But you can also listen to other stuff like cellos,
pianos, and more I won't name, because is better you wonder about them when
listening to this work.
As you can imagine, far from being mind-closed! And sound symbiosis from
electronic and metal shades is genius-like and original as well, which increases
a lot my opinion about these three metal monsters, that even are proud to make
a cover from mighty Venom's "Warhead", more agonic and merciless than
the original one from UK's legends.
Good and original but twisted. Is a must listening to them if you have balls enough
to try a session of this kind of music. This record is limited only to 300 copies, because in 2004, a new version will
be released with new artwork.
Vampire Magazine - by Geert van Mook. December 2003
Welcome to Vampire's cooking corner!
Today we are going to prepare a self
produced killer album.
Kevin 131, Tim Gutierrez and Eric Forrest (E-Force and Voivod) are the original
creators of this recipe and named it: A Beautiful Sickness
Ingredients
- 1 litre of Fear Factory
- 1 1/2 pound of Strapping Young Lad
- 4 tablespoons of Voivod
- 2 ounces of Ministry
- 1 tablespoon of My Dying Bride
- 2 talented musicians
- 1 established singer
Method
First of all, give the 2 talented musicians some instruments. Let them dissect
the litre of Fear Factory and take the best and most powerful parts of it, while
throwing away the useless parts.
The 1 ½ pound of Strapping Young Lad can be mixed in a large bowl together with
the useful parts of Fear Factory. Cook this for about 10 minutes.
Heat the 4 tablespoons of Voivod and take the most experimental parts of it. Do
the same with the 2 ounces of Ministry. Put the experimental parts of Voivod and
Ministry together in a small cup and stir it until it's a liquid sauce. Place
the sauce in the refrigerator for half an hour.
After this we can start searching for useful parts in the My Dying Bride
tablespoon; I recommend to use the old style My Dying Bride for this and only
take the violins and some of the keyboards. When this is done you can add it to
the cooked bowl of Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad.
Let the established singer sing some lyrics; let him scream and grunt. You can
also mix this into the bowl.
After adding the My Dying Elements, the bowl is ready, and you can take the
experimental sauce out of the refrigerator and pour it out over the bowl. Serve
it all in a nice artwork and give it a fitting name.
Extra
When you have time enough you can also search for a good Venom song; for example
Warhead. Change the ingredients of this song a bit and mix it with a little bit
of the experimental sauce you made before. The result will be a delicious
dessert.
Helpful Tip
This isn't a simple recipe to prepare and only real talented musicians can make
a tasteful self-produced killer album like this. The hardest thing is to give
the recipe a thrashy but mostly very own and original taste without leaving a
bitter and cheap taste. The original composers of this recipe; Project: Failing
Flesh prepared this recipe in a delicious and excessively successful way. And I
extremely recommend this recipe to all of you!!!
Eternal Frost - issue 15. December 2003
Project: Failing Flesh,
aside from having a cool as hell name, is a new band to the realm of metal,
although at least one of its members has a history in the genre. I speak of
vocalist Eric Forrest, formerly of the gods of experimental metal, Voivod. I'm
not sure about Tim Gutierrez and Kevin 131, but if this is any indication,
they've paid their dues in other bands as well.
Project: Failing Flesh plays a style you might expect, being experimental
thrash, but I personally find this more engaging than Voivod, probably because
it's more on the aggressive side. Taking modern thrash and blending in elements
of industrial along with instruments such as keyboard, viola, and Eric's raw,
key-aware screams (not the stuff you hear from Pantera). Don't worry, there's
plenty of double-bass and a peppering of blast (nice touch!) to keep you on your
toes, too.
Thanks to their years of experience, the
trio wrangled a stunningly sharp sound from their efforts and both the lyrics
and inner booklet are intriguing and well written, merely adding to the fact
that these are intelligent people behind the music. Oh yeah, you also get an
ultra-tight homage to Venom with the classic "Warhead," so you can
hear the band in a more traditional setting. There's really little left to ask
for.
A Beautiful Sickness just goes to show that experimental music can still
be aggressive and brutal. This disc is worth picking up for the music alone, but
also because this version is the independent band release being used to gain
label support for a further embellished package, so it'll probably become
somewhat of a collector's item for fans.
The Throne of Absence - by Gerrit Deschodt. December 2003
Wow, the first track of this self-produced album almost opens like Arch Enemy opened on Wages of Sin! The logo on the disc is like that of Bolt Thrower. But as you could already have deducted, trio Project: Failing Flesh (featuring ex Voivod member) does not have much in common with relentless Death Metal. They bring more sophisticated progressive, technical melodic yet aggressive Thrash Metal with dissonant, disharmonic Fear Factory styled intermezzos. Sometimes Project: Failing Flesh is synonymous to violent Thrash Metal like for instance Reclusion, but then they make room for industrial, spacey, avant garde, synthetic, experimental fragments. Clayton Ingerson from Relapse band Dysrhythmia appeared as guest musician (violins?) on 9mm Movie. The last track is a cover of the Venom classic Warhead. Band member Tim Gutierrez is responsible for futuristic art and layout. Innovative release. Not to be missed by Fear Factory fans, although Project: Failing Flesh is absolutely not a clone of the aforementioned band.
Beyond Webzine - (86 out of 100) by AOD. Winter 2003
Putting the CD of Project: Failing Flesh in my player for the first time was like a sledgehammer blow right in my face! Didn't pay too much interest at the CD cover and documentation at first but I did pretty soon after my recovery, trying to identify what attacked me with such brutal violence! Well this aggressive sonic experiment seems to be the work of three scientists (as they call themselves); co-founders Kevin 131 (sound-engineer at Assembly Line Laboratories for a living) and Tim Gutierrez, together with Eric Forrest, an old Metal stager from E-Force and of course Voivod. Project: Failing Flesh stands for sophisticated Death Metal with and industrial touch, with some influences of Voivod (of course) but also for example Strapping Young Lad. Pounding drums, fast guitar lines and fragmented raw Death vocals form the basis of this work. Some additional vocals, keyboards and instruments (e.g. the viola on "9mm Movie") provide the finishing touch. This CD contains nine original tracks; it closes with a nice version of Venom's "Warhead". It is one of those CD's you can put on a couple of times in a row without feeling bored, so what else needs to be said??? Well maybe just this: the good news is that Project: Failing Flesh has signed a deal recently, so we will all be able to buy and listen to this masterpiece very soon (in December). Only if you are ready for it, of course!
HMAS.org - (10 out of 10) by Dan Barkasi. January 2004
Project: Failing Flesh is a
3-piece band that hails from Virginia. The group was co-founded by Kevin 131 and
Tim Gutierrez. They needed a vocalist to complete the band, and the soon brought
in Eric Forrest (ex-Voivod, current E-Force) and they were ready to get things
rolling. In early 2003, Project: Failing Flesh recorded their first album,
titled A Beautiful Sickness. Everything was self-produced by the band, and Kevin
131 also performed the engineering and recording duties. In September 2003, the
band inked a deal with Karmageddon Media, and their debut, A Beautiful Sickness,
was set for release in early 2004. The band describes the album as an,
“aggressive, brutal, and precise collection”. I, of course, was quite
intrigued.
What did I find, you ask? After many, many listenings of this album, I concluded
the following. Project: Failing Flesh is a unique blender of many types of
metal, and the end result is flat out stunning! This music is a calculated
assault on your ears that never, ever lets up. I haven’t been this floored by
an album since I first heard Graveworm’s Scourge of Malice a good while ago.
Even after just one listen, I knew I was listening to something quite special.
When I wiped the drool from my face after I had listened to this album for the
first time, I listened to it again just to make sure somebody wasn’t playing a
game with my head and this kickass music was just a figment of my often twisted
imagination. Thankfully, it wasn’t a hallucination. There need to be more
Metal bands like this: willing to experiment and create something truly
different that is completely spectacular in every little way. Alright, alright,
enough of my groveling. Onto the songs!
The album gets things rolling with the title
track, A Beautiful Sickness. Right away, you’re hit with pounding drums and
crunching guitar riffs that ought to get you headbanging rather fast. This tune
is incredibly catchy, and has many changes of tempo. One minute you’re being
attacked with speedy guitar riffs and aggressive screams, and the next minute
you’re hit with church organs and soothing clean vocals. There’s boatloads
of variety here, to which I believe just about any metalhead can find something
that they’ll really enjoy. I couldn’t think of a better way to begin this
album. Next up is the song Planet Dead, which is my favorite song on the album.
It begins with some haunting keyboards, violins, and effects that are
accompanied by some very cool riffs and drum work. The song then breaks out into
some very hard-hitting and speedy guitars that really get the old blood flowing.
Planet Dead flies along, brutally attacking you with some spectacular
arrangements and catchy hooks. I really can’t get over the guitar work in this
particular song, and the whole album as well. To me, stuff like this is what
Metal is all about. The song can be downright chilling while thrashing you with
concentrated brutality all in one swift, calculated motion. Truly brilliant! The
3rd track, titled 9mm Movie, is much slower paced. I hear a lot of Doom Metal in
this song. It’s a nice change of pace, and it shows how multi-talented this
band really is. It ends with a Viola solo which is quite the interesting touch,
and it works very well. The 4th song, Scene of the Crime, can be easily
described in one word: fury. It’s a very thrashy tune that overflows with
aggression. Headbangers of all types should love this one. Long Silent Voices is
the 6th song, and is a nice mix of fast and heavy guitar work and dark
atmospheres. The song moves along very fast, and about 2 and ½ minutes in, a
tradeoff of guitars and piano begins, and leads into a very spooky symphonic
ending. A very unique song, for sure. Dementia Pugilistica, the 7th song on the
album, sounds to me to be very Black Metal inspired with its very evil sounding
guitar work and haunting melodies. The next song, Taste of the Lie, is more on
the Industrial side of things, and it is an interesting and pleasant change of
pace. The last song on the album is a cover of the classic Venom song Warhead.
The band does a spectacular job at giving this song the justices it deserves,
while putting in their own unique approach that comes out sounding absolutely
stellar.
I haven’t heard something this different in quite a long time. There are so
many different kinds of Metal that are in Project: Failing Flesh’s music. That
fact makes this album beyond varied, and every bit of it is enjoyable.
Technically, this album is without flaw. Every instrument is played with the
utmost precision. The production is equally as good, with every sound clear as
can be with just the right mixing. Tim Gutierrez, Kevin 131, and Eric Forrest
all do a masterful job on their respective parts. I haven’t heard music this
varied and the end result being this great in a long time.
To sum things up, Project: Failing Flesh is one amazing band. I honestly can’t
say enough about them. Who says Metal in America is dead? These guys prove that
statement to be very much wrong. This is one of the best up and coming bands out
there, period. If you don’t like this album, I’ll be surprised. Shocked,
even. If you want some amazing, ass-kicking Metal that is different from
everything else out there, GET THIS ALBUM! Bands like this don’t come around
often, so check out Project: Failing Flesh as soon as you can! It should be out
in early 2004 on Karmageddon records, so keep an eye out for it. I give this
album a perfect 10/10, because I see not one thing wrong with this record. This
is musical bliss!
Grave Music - (10 out of 10) by Chris Pineau. January 2004
Now
this is what I’m talking about! Project: Failing Flesh are two fellows, Kevin
131 and Tim Gutierrez, from Virginia who have cooked up a turbulent and lethal
brew of various different styles of metal coupled with gothic/industrial
flourishes and stirred it up to the boiling point. When I say various styles, I
mean as in 80s thrash riffing and some modern death metal touches of the
distinctly European variety, mostly, but some other elements rear their heads as
well, most notably the driving and discordant mid-period (“Killing
Technology” and onward) Voivod-influenced moments that pop up in several songs
along the way on this rough ride. The industrial influence shows itself in the
tasteful use of keyboards to augment and enhance the overall sound of the songs,
themselves built on simple, syncopated riffs that are actually quite catchy,
booming live and programmed drumming (it bears mention that the production on
this CD is stellar as well), and an overall stark, doomy, postmodern feel.
As cold and eerie as this music sounds, it also has undeniably human elements of
rage, frustration, and contempt meshed tightly into the proceedings, and we can
thank ex-Voivod/current E-Force vocalist/bassist Eric Forest (strictly on
vocals, here) for this. His harsh screaming adds a generous level of emotion and
character to the proceedings, and he also contributes some trippy, processed
clean vocals here and there similar to what he did with his previous band. The
more psychedelic and gothic keyboard moments (especially a spooky church organ
sound) are used only for effect and atmosphere, and last just long enough to add
flavor to what is already a most tasty stew of crunchy metal chords and
teeth-gnashing attitude. Unlike most industrial-influenced bands, the keyboards
and such are just that, effects as opposed to dominant and overbearing—we’re
talking more a Ministry/NIN (noticeably minus the angst) sound here where the
guitars are on equal footing with the electronics. Equal time for everything is
the name of the game, and the game is played both well and ruthlessly.
Their lyrics are what I really enjoy, a black and scathing portrait of modern
society condemning it as the flock of sheep obsessed with TV and its mindless
messages that it is. “9mm Movie” and “Entrance Wound” really sum things
up in that respect, and the opening tandem of “A Beautiful Sickness” and
“Planet Dead” will simply grab your attention and shake it down hard as
opposed to asking for it, with their powerful riffing and tasteful use of blast
beats to make their point. There are only a few songs that use blast beats, and
to deadly effect, as they are well arranged and feel sincere as opposed to
gratuitous. “9mm Movie” and “Entrance Wound” also have some particularly
haunting viola work from guest musician Clayton Ingerson (Dysrhythmia), and his
chilling improvisations make those songs stand out especially. The rest of the
songs on this CD are just as strong and gripping, such as “Taste of the
Lie”, and “Dementia Pugilistica”, and this is a rare thing, a beautiful
thing. They even throw in a righteous cover of Venom’s not-often-covered
“Warhead” and do it some justice with fuzz bass galore in the grand Cronos
tradition.
I really urge folks who are more open minded to check this out, as this vicious
crossbreeding of brooding atmosphere and punishing brutality needs to be heard.
And even if you aren’t as open minded as some out there, check this out anyway
to expand your horizons a little. “Industrial” doesn’t just mean
electronics overkill anymore, and the fruition of what Ministry got rolling back
in the early 90s with their classic “The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste”
is a lovely thing to hear on this end.
Primal Agony - by Ian Busch. January 2004
This was the first CD to arrive in my mailbox for the year 2004 and what a killer album to review first up. This truly is an amazing album but more on that in a moment.
First lets back up and fill in the gaps that is Project: Failing Flesh. Co-founded by Kevin 131 and Tim Gutierrez (who are noted as playing the instruments although not which ones in particular), the line-up was completed when they secured vocalist Eric Forrest currently of E-Force and also of Voi Vod fame where he recorded the "Negatron" and "Phobos" albums with the band.
The album and this version of the album I have is in fact a fully self financed album that was also recorded, engineered, mixed and produced by the two founding members. It has been out as an independent release since the earlier part of 2003 but will now see the light of day (with new cover art) on a bigger scale after their recent signing with Karmageddon Media.
There is no straight forward term to describe this album musically as it can vary so much from song to song, yet two words that certainly fit are brutal and aggressive. However you can't leave it at that as that just doesn't do it enough justice. It is like if you took bits of Fear Factory, Devin Townsend, Arch Enemy and blended it with more doom, thrash and death metal elements then you might go a bit closer to explaining the awesome heavy sound these guys have come up with.
The title
track "A Beautiful Sickness" blasts in with some marching type drums
before some quick, strong and heavy chugging riffs that keeps the sound
pounding. It soon changes with the introduction of keyboards underlying the
sound and from the rougher vocals to cleaner spacey vocals that is joined with
some aggressive thrash/death riffing. It reminded me a bit at times of Galatic
Cowboys in this section but heavier. A great introduction to the band and album
that is just a listening pleasure from start to finish.
The opening of Planet Dead" with the use of keyboards has a somber feel
lingering behind powerful guitar chords but it eventually evolves into a ball
tearing aggressive, melody driven song with a few tempo changes along the way.
"9mm Movie" is a twisted, dark and doomy track. When I say twisted it
is because while the riffs are chunky and doomy the violin that rounds out the
song is more like something out of a demented horror film than the depressing
sound usually associated with a doom metal type song. Add in some great vocal
work from Eric Forrest and this is one of my favourite tracks on here.
"Scene Of The Crime" has Fear Factory style industrial undertones to
it lying beneath a deathy/thrash mix while "Entrance Wound" has a
similar vibe of aggression and heaviness but a bit more thrashy overall.
"Long Silent Voices" continues the strong modern thrash riffing. Throw
in mid section an off the wall bizarre bit of atmospheric orchestrial music that
continues to the end and you have a very unique blend of music.
"Dementia Pugilistica" is pure no bullshit thrash/death aggression
from start to finish with some big riffing to hook yourself into. The
techno/industrial opening of "Taste Of The Lie" is short thankfully
but the industrial overtones are very much there throughout this. As the song
progresses through it's three minutes it slowly starts distorting more and more
until by the end when it cuts out it is one big blur. Probably my least
favourite song on here, but it does show another of the many sounds to this
band. The last of the original songs comes via a heavy groove infested monster
called "Highwire Act". This is very catchy in a heavy way although it
finishes with a blast of speed followed by some huge chunky chords. Closing the
album out is a cover of the Venom classic "Warhead". Reworked to the
Project: Failing Flesh style and complete with a sample from The Exorcist movie
this is an excellent version and a fitting way to finish this magnificent debut
album.
Given the right exposure I can see Project: Failing Flesh making a big impact within the metal scene in 2004 and judging by this album they deserve it. This is a must to check out as soon as possible and to get a taste of what this album offers go to http://www.projectfailingflesh.com for a couple of the songs off this.
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