Mamaleek: Via Dolorosa LP (The Flenser, 2015)

September 30, 2015 at 10:34 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Mamaleek: Via Dolorosa LP

The Flenser has been releasing plenty of great metal/not-metal in the past few years, and this album is another eye-opener. Boundary-pushing metal which sounds like it could have been recorded in a Transylvanian dungeon as well as a seedy New Orleans jazz club or a Crooklyn basement circa ’97 with Scotty Hard on the console. There’s harsh growling, but instead of being drowned out by walls of guitar noise or blastbeats, there’s damaged lo-fi rock, trippy beats or crunchy drums, restrained jazz guitar, and static-covered piano. It really, truly does not sound like any other record I’ve ever heard, and it’s awesome. I’m guessing this the only illbient jazz metal band in the world, but I am totally open to being proven wrong on that one. (Edit: Now that I think of it, that description reminds me of Praxis and a few other Bill Laswell projects, but this sounds leagues away from any of them to be honest. Anyway, just listen to it!)

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