Italian newcomers Siege must be flattered for their individualistic output. They had balls to throw all kinds of stuff into this mixed soup called 'Decay of Flesh', which is their debut full-length album. Their debut release was the EP 'Battle for the Skull of Steel', which came out in 2012.

Fundamentally Siege are a death metal band. However, the album starts with kind of a gothic instrumental song, before entering the realms of raw and bonking death metal. The death metal songs include loads of tempo and riff transitions. At times so much, that one has to wonder how did they come up with such transforming songs. Consequently, the songs feel more or less unclear and disorganized, leaving me confused. When more of these gothic instrumental songs are thrown in, the album gets pretty weird. 'Darrell' doesn't remind of Pantera at all, by the way. The vocals are really raw differently pitched, powerful growls.

The bass guitar reminds of technical playing of Tony Choy (Atheist, ex-Cynic, ex-Pestilence). Sadly, other instruments are far behind in quality. The guitars are rusty, with some shredding and chugging riffs thrown at a listener, with occasional lead work. Loud in the mix drums are here to pummel one. However, when they don't keep up with timing, they are the worst element of the album. The recording quality of songs can alter quite a bit, but only the instrumentals can be said to sound crisp. It gets messy during more brutal and fast pieces.

At first I was thrilled what sick and brutal gems 'Decay of Flesh' would hide (just check out the song titles!), but when I was trying to get into songs, I couldn't unearth any. This is a mess of an album, but if you're looking for some damned confusing death metal, be my guest.

Rating: 4- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/11/2014 20:57