Band:	Fleshgod Apocalypse
Album:	King
Style:	Symphonic death metal
Release date:	February 05, 2016
Guest review by:	MisterChrisBrdk

Disc I
01. Marche Royale
02. In Aeternum
03. Healing Through War
04. The Fool
05. Cold As Perfection
06. Mitra
07. Paramour (Die Leidenschaft Bringt Leiden)
08. And The Vulture Beholds
09. Gravity
10. A Million Deaths
11. Syphilis
12. King

Disc II] [digipak bonus] [orchestral version]
01. Marche Royale
02. In Aeternum
03. Healing Through War
04. The Fool
05. Cold As Perfection
06. Mitra
07. And The Vulture Beholds
08. Gravity
09. A Million Deaths
10. Syphilis

Italians and beauty are worth checking out.

There is something remarkable with Fleshgod Apocalypse; the overall feeling that you get when you listen truly embodies what Italia and Italians are famous for. A country with grotesque, built on a glorious past, always looking at its history and collecting "clichés" like stacks of paintings from the Renaissance to Vivaldi's and Verdi's anthems. A country, all in all, that always looks for everlasting beauty with hard work and a bit of fortune and luck.

Italians crave for grandeur and beauty. Remember Roma and Venice. Remember Da Vinci. Remember every golden age of every region of the incumbent Italian empire throughout history. Remember Jeb Gambardella, the character of "The Great Beauty" from Paolo Sorrentino, a character that lived 40 years in Roma, snatched into a tornado of superficiality in a city he thought to be its grave. Remember Rocco. Remember that Italians are constantly surrounded by beauty wherever they look. Remember nevertheless it's a cliché and that from "La Grande Bellezza" (The Great Beauty) to "La Grande Discarica"(the Great Dump) there is a thin line.

That thin line was crossed in the previous two albums of Fleshgod Apocalypse: Agony, with its intended voyeurism, and Labyrinth, with its intended explosivity. All served one purpose: grandeur. You could have found some hints of beauty here and there without any comparison with the high amount of grandeur delivered. The whole package is unbalanced.

That, my friends, ends with King. The highly-charged orchestration fades behind complex rhythm composition at its best and wealthiest in order to deliver maturity. Then maturity delivers beauty. King sounds like the band is delivering his full potential without any over-the-top excesses.

From "Healing Through War" and its second-half scorching end, the eponymous title with its savage mix between the XVIII and the XXI century, "Cold As Perfection" and its melancholy, the opera-esque "Paramour" to the vicious and apocalyptic "Syphilis" the Italians seem to have squared the circle between brutality, technicity and symphony. Overall, the sound engineering is as mezmerizing as the composition giving each instrument the accuracy and the sharpness they need. Above all, the bonus orchestral edition gives an idea of how challenging these songs must have been to write and record. All in all, it gives the dizzying impression that the Italians are mastering the genre.

The keys were moderation, maturity and sobriety, three keys to deliver one King.

All hail to the king.