Album Review: Unflesh – Inhumation (Self Released)

New Hampshire-based blackened melodic death metallers Unflesh will release their second full-length album, Inhumation on April 2nd 2021.

Unflesh vocalist/guitarist Ryan Beevers comments:

Inhumation delves into the concept of desensitization and losing one’s soul or losing one’s humanity so to speak. The title itself is used in a metaphorical sense, as the actual definition of the word “Inhumation” is the action or practice of burying the dead. For album purposes, the title is used on a more spiritual and emotional level. Each track on the album is a bit of a meditation on different aspects of the primary concept. When the listener gets to the last song on the album, the totality of the album will have taken form.

There is a lot to unpack here which isn’t always something you can say about melodic death metal. It has a sound and style and most stick rigidly to the tried and tested formula.

Not Unflesh though. They want to take the melding of melody and death and twist it into something vaguely familiar but still an entirely new beast all together. The drawn-out opening instrumental, dark and cold, starts this off on the right foot. Strumming guitar shouldn’t sound so threatening.

Though if you want to feel under attack, continue into the Vast Forest of Impaled Cadavers. Unflesh displaying the horror of their savagery with a sickening amount of glee. Frenzied riffing, brassy percussion and filthy vocals, this is the heavy stuff.

No time for a breather, To Renounce Flesh and Blood announces itself with an ear-piercing howl. Call it a warning as the blistering thrashiness that follows is downright painful to experience. Unflesh gave you fair warning but such is the thrill of listening to their meaty metal output.

Unafraid to keep pushing the limits, the title track is a wild ride of intense instrumentation drawn out over an epic length. One that isn’t felt as the twists and turns, often provided by the guitars, are so plentiful and exciting. Amongst the Horrors Must I Dwell calms things down briefly with some introductory melody before erupting like a horde of demons out of hell.

Demons that rend flesh from bone throughout Holocaust of Stars and The Sepulchral Depths. A pair of latter tracks that continue to showcase just how ripping and roaring Unflesh’s brand of melo-death is.

The end is here though and what an end it is. Unflesh at their grandest. At their most astonishingly detailed and musically gripping. Nine minutes of savagery warped by a constant maelstrom of twists and turns. Phenomenal.

There’s a new name on the melo-death scene. Say it loudly and proudly. Unflesh have released something that makes them impossible to ignore.

Unflesh – Inhumation Full Track Listing:

1. Behold Nightfall
2. Vast Forest of Impaled Cadavers
3. To Renounce Flesh and Blood
4. Inhumation
5. Amongst Horrors Must I Dwell
6. Holocaust of Stars
7. The Sepulchral Depths
8. Dehumanized Legion

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