Flourishing - The Sum Of All Fossils

When Ulcerate emerged early this year like a Kraken from the dead oceans and turned death metal upside down with an usually innovative lunge toward a Neurosis-ian, post-death aesthetic, I for one thought it would be a one-off entity for 2011. Apparently not. Along with a smattering of others that could fall under this neologism, such as Baring Teeth, Owl and perhaps even Mitochondrion, Flourishing take more than a leaf from this burgeoning movement of a more textured approach to death metal (and post-hardcore) and manage to inject a level of variety and diversity not seen even in The Destroyers Of All (being the perfect remedy for those that found it too repetitive).

This is one record that does not deserve to slip by unnoticed.