Review: “Angry, Undead” by The Flaying

Winning the GAMIQ (Gala alternatif de la musique indépendante du Québec) award for “Metal Album of The Year” for their debut full-length “Angry, Undead” released this past March on PRC Music, Quebec Canadian Metallers The Flaying have been given an extra career boost. The band, Guitarist Didier “Did” Samson, Bassist Sébastien “Web” Marier-Verret, Vocalist William “Wil” Murray and Drummer Michel “Mike” Bélanger formed in the summer of 2010 and released their debut “Unhope” in 2014.

For those not in the know, to flay is to strip the skin off and would usually mean from a corpse or carcass. But in opening “Ouverture Écarlate” the album introduction we get the full on torture sequence before the album starts a proper with “Disloqué”. If you pardon the pun, it’s an *ahem* ripping Melodic Death Metal cut, with blistering rocket fuel injected blast beat sections and formaldehyde filled barrells of riffs. Bloodcurdling roars and pitch changes in the vocals take us down the route of bands like The Black Dahlia Murder with some Blackened tones creeping in. The playful “Place du Parvis” is lightning quick with sublime Technical Death Metal twists and turns while the vocals are nothing short of brutal. A bass heavy bridge leaves us with the kind of fun that you might associate with Between The Buried And Me, while is if it wasn’t for those deep, gravelly, demon Demonic vocals, musically it’s up it at that kind of high level head rush.

“Genuflect” has an intricate lead part that plays melodically over the bone crushing pounding rhythmic gymnastics before a relentless pursuit of breakneck speed takes hold and drags you though a hedge backwards at light speed. The use of stuccato riffage in the breakdown gives it a satisfying crunch factor before running you down for the final crescendo. “Egocentric Predicament” keeps the clean intricate lead flourishes firmly in play for a 44 second instrumental bridge that is a short and blistering sweet opening for “Elegy of Emptiness”. Another relentless battering, Bélanger gets the opportunity for a full kit work out and delivers some sublime fills while a guitar solo and darker atmospheric add demonic plague feel to the track. A use of chord progressions that you’d normally associate with Progressive Metal work well against the backdrop of the dark, cold night.

“La Valse du Scorpion” or “The Scorpion Waltz” is exactly that, a Death Metal Waltz of relentless climbing riffs that get progressively faster to the point you can only imagine smoke coming off the instruments in the rehearsal room and looks of envy from the likes of Power Metallers DragonForce. “Angry, Unleashed” has a clean riff introduction before returning to a Norwegian Black Metal style sound that Murray sounding like a Demonic hateful God reigning terror on the World from a chamber in the depths. His pig squeals are savage, his vocal chords are worked to within an inch of his life and what you’re left with is a piece of Black art that is savagely brilliant in a The Shining way. “Angry, Undead” is like a second movement, with those clean leads adding a menacing creepy overtone to a whirlwind of pummelling rhythms. There are further regularly toned lead parts and even a bass solo of sorts all wrapped in venomous, acid bile spitting vocals. A howitzer of a closing cut it ends sharply as you’re expecting it to fade out… [8/10]

Track listing

1. Ouverture Écarlate
2. Disloqué
3. Place du Parvis
4. Genuflect
5. Egocentric Predicament (Instrumental)
6. Elegy of Emptiness
7. La Valse du Scorpion
8. Angry, Unleashed
9. Angry, Undead

“Angry Undead” by The Flaying is out now via PRC Music and available over at bandcamp