Band:	Nader Sadek
Album:	In The Flesh
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	May 2011

01. Awakening
02. Petrophilia
03. Of This Flesh (Novus Deus)
04. Exhaust Capacitor
05. Soulless
06. Rusted Skin
07. Mechanic Idolatry
08. Sulffer
09. Nigredo In Necromance

This is a death metal supergroup. One of your fat, fan fiction writing ass's dream bands. Think of it as the death metal equivalent of Ocean's 12. Only, instead of George Clooney and Julia Roberts, you've got Attila and Blasphemer. And instead of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, you've got Flo Mounier and Steve Tucker. And so on. Apt comparison? Uh, not really. But how many times are you given the opportunity to compare Julia Roberts to Blasphemer? Certainly no more than twice a month.

Anyway. It's a real surprise that this album feels as cohesive as it does. I mean, it feels like an album by a band. And a damn good band at that. It doesn't sound like a collection of guest appearances. This is likely attributable to a number of things, but it's certainly, maybe above all else, attributable to the expert songwriting and song structuring. Everything on this thing sounds right. Songs breathe, steamrolling at death metal speeds, followed with blackened crescendos, followed by more steamrolling, and so on. Riffs are persistently headbangable--almost annoyingly headbangable. Etc.

In The Flesh is a fairly typical death metal album, but it's a typical death metal album that's executed extremely well. The riffs are as mean and varied as you'd expect from Blasphemer (Mayhem) and Desthructor (formerly of Zyklon, now with Morbid Angel) working side-by-side. The drumming is of the sort you'd expect from a Cryptopsy vet like Mounier. The album's sound is unoriginal, yeah, but everything on it is played so well that I really don't give a shit.

Nevertheless, the sheer amount of Morbid Angel worship on some of the tracks is a little much. Especially with Steve Tucker and the Domination-esque vox effects used on some of the songs. That said, this might prove a nice chaser for those who were disappointed by Illud Divnium Insanus.

This is a good death metal album. Plain and simple. It's not genre-pushing, but it'll easily satisfy, if not straight up ear-fellate, those who still enjoy a bout with deathty death metal every now and then. Add to this the concept of the album?an exploration of how man and petroleum are linked, or something?and the artistic vision of Nader Sadek (a conceptual artist by trade), and there should be enough for someone searching for some non-goof death. It's got the good, the brutal, and the slightly pretentious.

You remember how awesome it was when the Jetsons and the Flintstones met? Remember that blood-sugar spike, the hyperventilating, and the drooling when George Fucking Jetson and Fred Fucking Flinstone met? No?... Well this is more awesome anyways. So let's break out those green numbers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

List of the people who made guest appearances and weren't mentioned above: Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation), Nick McMaster (Krallice), Tony Normon (Terrorizer), and Mike Lerner (Behold? The Arctopus)