Formed in 1993, Fleshless is one those bands that started out as a Gore/Grind drum machine racket that I have absolutely no interest in and their first two albums were quite execrable.  Then somewhere along the way the band found groove, found some melody, dropped their drum machine and got a human to join them and things started to get a bit better.

By then the band had gone from calling themselves death-grind to melodic-brutal-death. The resulting albums were all a bit strange in that there would be these ultra brutal gurgley vocals and the whole gore-grind style of guitar playing sitting next to melodic death guitar parts and that staccato riffing style. For whatever reason I’ve always been a bit curious about Fleshless and when I found out that they had a new one out this year I simply could not resist.

First song proper on Hate is Born pretty much sets the tone for the album to follow. Lifetime Mayhem starts out in a death metal frenzy with those gurgling vocals and blast beats before settling down into some chuggy mid-period Sinister riffing. From there on it’s basically a fast part and then a mid-tempo chuggy part with an extended melodic guitar section and a lead that shouldn’t make any sense on the song but somehow doesn’t sound too bad. That’s pretty much every song on the album.

While the format of each song on the album is pretty similar with a fast death riff, a staccato riffing section that sits somewhere between Fear Factory & Meshuggah and a melodic part that may or may not include a lead. The sequence of riffs and the intensity of delivery might change from song to song but that’s about it. To Watch Them Slain ups the brutality stakes while D-flesh! reminds me a lot of Fear Factory with that main chugging riff.

I have to say that Hate is Born is the most fun Fleshless album since 2001s Nice to Eat You. The riffs are jumpy and aggressive, the grooves are nice and fat and although there’s nothing particularly original about it all, it’s all done well and the band isn’t taking itself too seriously. At the same time, there’s lots of stuff here that will feel familiar and like you’ve all ready heard these riffs before. I suppose your tolerance and liking for the death metal genre will determine how much you like this album but overall at just over 30 minutes, Hate is Born is a short sharp blast of aggression that’s decent fun.



Label - Metal Age Productions
Year of Release - 2008