Band:	Advent Of Bedlam
Album:	Flesh Over God
Style:	Death metal, Melodic death metal
Release date:	February 29, 2012
A review by:	Windrider

01. Nimrod's Rebellion
02. Time For Vengeance
03. Tyrannicide
04. Purification Through Pain
05. Indoctrinated Wrath [feat. Tim Aymar]
06. Creed Of The Void
07. The Swinish Moguls
08. Echoes Of The Unhinged

This is actually the hardest album yet for me to review and the first one I need to listen to while writing this review. But first the names, today I tell you something about Flesh Over God by Advent Of Bedlam, which some guys may have known once as December's Cold Winter. The genre is death metal (the anti-Christian way) and the country of origin is Costa Rica. So now this is the problem with this album: there is nothing memorable in it. And by this I do not mean it's bad, in fact it is just complex as hell. After two days and about half a dozen listens, I still couldn't remember a single melody. After I spun it like a full dozen times, it was exactly one melody that still was in my head when turning off the player. The only thing I always know while not listening to it is that it's pretty cool actually.

Imagine Behemoth with the brutal parts of Dimmu Borgir's In Sorte Diaboli, Slayer riffs waving from every second corner and Ronnie James Dio as guest vocalist, then you have pretty much the idea of how Flesh Over God sounds like. To complete your fantasy, look at this awesome album cover. I really gazed like hours at it and as one can guess from it, the album is based around the story of the tower of Babel. For example, the guy which appears in the first song title "Nimrod's Rebellion" plays his part in this story. But I am not here to preach and give a sermon.

Talking about the music, I already said it's complex death metal. Indeed it is quite the opposite of generic, rather raw and edged and most importantly, brutal. If someone asked me how to describe it by a single term I'd say something like "authentic fury," because this is the atmosphere that is carried within Advent Of Bedlam's music. Positive aspects of the record include this overall true death metal feeling, harsh riffs that one couldn't think of easily, and a fantastic performance by all the band mates: I especially want to praise the drummer. Vocals are either deep and dark in Nergal style or high pitched like on the border to black metal. Solos are rare (I think I've counted two) but enjoyable and they show something of the band's past when they played their music the melodic way. Nevertheless after listening to some of their older stuff I was glad they got rid of the keyboard because the new style fits them much better.

Finally, I want to share my highlight with you which is the song "Tyrannicide," because its chorus was (and is) the first and only melody stuck in my head from this album. A nice example of a great but uneasy-listening riff is the intro riff to "The Swinish Moguls." Overall Flesh Over God is a very good album, if only I could remember it...