Labyrinth(2013) by Fleshgod Apocalypse | Teen Ink

Labyrinth(2013) by Fleshgod Apocalypse

July 28, 2015
By theheavymetalist ELITE, Winter Haven, Florida
theheavymetalist ELITE, Winter Haven, Florida
247 articles 0 photos 57 comments

Favorite Quote:
Take me As I Am - James Labrie of Dream Theater


Fleshgod Apocalypse is a technical death metal band forming from Hour of Penence and in Italy. With their latest two albums however, they decided to become a bit more unique by adding symphonies to create some expert structure and epic, epic pieces. One thing you might notice is that these guys like to also deal with popular Greek, and maybe Roman, legends and stories and put a bit of a twist on them. This is especially evident in this album here.

Labyrinth is a very epic and pounding masterpiece of metal. It's like it tells a completely different story to the actual Labyrinth legend that it's based off of. Yeah we still have our hero, who I assume is still Perceus, we still have the Minotaur being the creature he's after, and we still have the gods trying to help him or sometimes fool him. We got all that. But these guys put a bit of a twist on the story by, instead of Perceus succeeding, he dies and it's in first person.

Considering this is technical death metal, expect some crazy fast speeding riffs and blast beats to be everywhere, which to some, can make you feel a bit overwhelmed(they did that to me too believe it or not)and the background symphonies don't do much to help that either. The music and the lyrics definitely make you feel first hand, like you are the hero and you are trying to get through the Labyrinth at all costs. It truly is something special. Not to mention, the music gets incredibly darker in tone as you get further and further to the end as if to increasingly foreshadow Perceus' demise.

Tracks like Towards The Sun, Pathfinder, and Under Balck Sails all show this increasing dark tone very well. Alot of the tracks are around the four or five minute marks by the way although some like Under Black Sails and Kingborn(the first track) you will find to be longer than that. The album surely feels like it should be an entire movie its self and it seems many people agree with me on that, because it sounds so epic and has a very good twist ending to the original legend, or at least the one that is most common, and there are probably many other reasons that I can't seem to name at this moment. If you like Greek legends, Death metal, or just want something epic to listen to, I think Fleshgod has got you covered.

Though it does have a couple of nitpicks for me like maybe more audible guitars and bass. Sorry the drums and symphonies drown them out so it will be very hard to hear. Also maybe more time for guitar solos or at least longer songs. If they ever did do something like this again, I would love it if it were a bit longer, but of course at the cost of that they need more progression happening which leads me to my next point.... It doesn't seem progressive enough in my opinion. Sure you are able to seperate the tracks pretty easily and none sound exactly the same, but maybe some more longer solos or tracks with infinintely changing time signitures will help to made it sound more like an adventure to me.


The author's comments:

What did you think? Post in the comments below your opinion and tell me what you think of my reviewing style and what you think I should do to make it better. Thanks for reading and for your long and dangerous journey through life, take this music as my offering and to help make it through.


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