The upshot of Fleshvessel’s offering for this album is extreme metal of a black/death variety but also a symphonic sound comprising an overwhelming array of instruments, including the flute, ocarina, viola, harp, glockenspiel, darbuka, clarinet, jaw harp, Thai phin, trumpet and more. I can see why Fleshvessel, whose first album this is following an EP in 2020, might be compared with Kayo Dot.

This grandiloquent, or magniloquent to use the word of the accompanying publicity, affair consists of four gargantuan pieces split up by three “vignettes”. The first of the pieces is “Winter Came Early”. Here the glockenspiel features. A wintry scene is indeed depicted. From the initial scene we’re plunged into death metal darkness before a return to a more calming environment, enhanced by the melancholy of the viola. Growls reappear and plunge us back into darkness. The backing instrumentals sound pained and distorted. 11 minutes in length, this piece is divided into distinct passages. Quiet, sultry passages alternate with dark and heavy ones. As “Winter Came Early” comes to a close, there’s an aura of desperation as the music gets more frantic and dark. I think we can safely class this as avant-garde. The piano-led “Promethean – Vignette I” is sombre. A lilting flute marks the opening of “A Stain”. The scene is disturbing, and continues to be so when deathly tones and triggering drums fill the air. This is like the soundtrack to extreme horror. Distorted, drawn out tones set the atmosphere. Technical guitar work combines with frenetic piano playing before it heads off in its bizarre way. Now I’m thinking of an extreme form of classical composition as a means of describing it. It’s got that shape in a metal context. The tension builds. The grotesque riot of sounds continues remorselessly, leading to a synthesised plea to end. I couldn’t say if thematically events are taking a turn for the worse because it’s music without boundary or compromise, but it seems that way.

Incongruously, the next vignette is an unusual but bright little ditty featuring the Puerto Rican cuatro and Thai phin. Now where did that one come from? The album, I should explain is about seeking enlightenment, and is seen though human conflicts and struggles. I certainly sensed struggle here. By contrast “The Void Chamber” starts with a calming flute, and builds up in a more dramatic way. While the guitar plays a classic solo, the symphonic sound around it signals disturbance. Then it’s all change for a deep death metal attack. We seem to spiralling in a downwards direction. It’s unusual but vivid. An African sounding section follows, at first deliberately defying all sense of tune but then launching into an exciting, rapid-fire passage. A breather is taken, and to pitter-patter sounds the piano emits an eccentric tune, rising and falling in scale before plunging into deathly and ghostly territory and finally another classic and flashy guitar solo. “Be a good slave, cradle to grave, sacrifice your eyes to the screen, consume away your hopes and your dreams”, barks the lyric of the final piece “Eyes Yet to Open” nihilistically. The piece itself is a frenzy of haunting musical maelstrom and dramatic transformations. This engaging 17-minute opus sweeps us along and toys with our emotions. It’s like being carried along a wave. I had faintly sensed a mystical element to this point but now I truly felt it. There’s an Eastern aura. I was reminded a little in ambience of Opeth’s “Damnation” but this is music on a wider, world stage. Above all others here, “Eyes Yet to Open” in fact belies its title by opening up the senses, and is hugely powerful.

It’s always best to start with no expectations. Anyone expecting anything fluid in a traditional music sense will be disappointed here. The interest lies in this album’s complete lack of convention. “Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed” has structure and vastness. I can’t claim that this is easy listening and I felt slightly distanced from it until the advent of “Eyes Yet to Open”, which explodes with mysticism, but I like Fleshvessel’s audacity. It’s extreme in musical expression and range and is most certainly experimental, but difficult as its form may be to comprehend, this is a highly creative work and one whose boldness I appreciated.

(8/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/FleshvesselDM

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/yearning-promethean-fates-sealed