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TOWERS OF FLESH
Antithetical Conjurations

Candlelight (2014)
Rating: 8/10

Formed in 2008, Towers Of Flesh are a UK trio consisting of Jack Welch (vocals), Tom Hinksman (guitar / bass) and guitarist / drummer Anil Carrier (drums / guitar). Antithetical Conjurations, which comes complete with fantastic artwork, is the Midlands-based band’s second record following on from 2010’s The Perpetual Paradox.

The album packs six punches which in total run for a duration of just under 40 minutes; just enough time then for the trio to extract your spine, filter your organs into a blender, and liquefy your brain.

As one can expect with a band offering such morbid artwork, and equally sinister moniker and album title, this is a rather harrowing experience that fuses death and black metal. While not necessarily in your face, Towers Of Flesh’s new album is content to slowly but surely grind you down into a bloodied pulp as the vocals in hoarse fashion slam and grate against the ears, and are complemented by some truly stark and berating landscapes.

To say this is doom-laden death metal is an understatement. These guys are masters at carving out thought-provoking ashen nightmares caressed by mournful, wailing guitars and sombre passages which are then enveloped by those grey, throaty barks and the precise percussion which frays sinews and parts ligaments.

From the brief opening instrumental title track which is taken over by the gruelling vacuum that is ‘Veiled Conception’, Towers Of Flesh kind of creep around the room like an ambush predator rather than going for the kill immediately. There’s a hint of stealth and crafty conniving as the rank guitar sound lumbers, seemingly inoffensive but gradually it pulls you down into its murky lair. As for the drumming, well it’s simply a menacing tirade that starts out as a rusty machine gun rattle before resorting to a hideous plod to signify the impending doom to all.

Once smothered there is simply no return to the soothing air for the listener, especially once the nine-minute ‘Beg For Absolution’ has thrust itself – warts ’n’ all – into the skin; the bass jabs and the dense grooves are coated in a pungent silt. My only real issue here is that sometimes the drum is delivered with an annoying click, almost as if it’s been produced out of context with the rest of the musical murk. But with that aside, as each lumbering tracks wraps a rubbery tentacle around your limbs, you’ll soon become one with the sombreness.

‘Blind-Worm-Cycle’ offers further melancholy; vocally it’s the same dry rasp of harshness that plays with the morose tinges of doom, but every now and then Towers Of Flesh interrupts the suffocation with some glimmer of oddness, meaning that this record is far from being a one-dimension monster, but instead writhes in its agony as a multi-headed hydra.

Certainly at its most vigorous, Antithetical Conjurations is a putrid jackhammer of an album, but for the most part this is a dank affair offering enough sickly fumes to choke a dead man.

Neil Arnold

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