Album Review: The Amenta - Flesh Is Heir

Flesh Is Heir rips, rends and satisfies every orifice in the human body with its sheer brutality and bestial personality.  Warping black, death and industrial metal on their third release, The Amenta create a tangible grotesque performance from beginning to end. 

The Amenta's release with EVP/Rocket punctuates with crisp production values, behemoth quality and blasphemous rage. Flesh Is Heir governs on stylistic variation, a fluid bending of different genres and a track list that has a cut-out-the-fat approach. Best demonstrated on the track Ego Ergo Sum, vocalist Cain Cressall summons the underworld with inhumane bellows while guitarist Erik Miehs and bassist Dan Quinlan create a sound fit for a demonic resurrection. A stand-out track titled Obliterates Prayer depicts drummer Robin Stone reigning supreme with a fast and infuriated approach, but he also manages to generate an ethereal atmosphere throughout the release.  With tracks like Teeth and Tabula Rasa, it's an immediate indication that the Sydney-based band does not conform and are not afraid to experiment musically or even lyrically. Each track seizes the listener into the darkest pools of the underworld and allows for a show and tell, taste and touch of monstrous effects – just as the band would have liked it, no doubt.

Prior releases from The Amenta grated on progressive ingenuity, but Flesh Is Heir takes it even further. The latest release caters for a wider listenership, which is great value for money and even better value to the Australian metal scene.