Phlesh ae a solo project from Vancouver, B.C, Canada that plays a very melodic and gothic form of black metal and this is a review of his self released 2023 album "The Decomposing".
High pitched black metal screams start off the album along with some clean playing a few seconds later before going into a heavier direction. Spoken word parts can also be heard on a couple of songs while the keyboards also bring in symphonic and gothic elements into the music and a great portion of the tracks are also very long and epic in length.
When the music speeds up a great amount of tremolo picking and blast b eats can be heard while the riffs also add in a lot of melody. Throughout the recording you can also hear a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts along with one song also adding in a brief use of whispered vocals, clean playing also returns on some of the later tracks and a couple of songs are also instrumentals.
Phlesh plays a style of black metal that is very melodic and aggressive sounding as well as adding in some symphonic and gothic elements to create a sound of his own. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics are an autobiographical concept album based upon mental illness, addiction, depression, anxiety and self-destruction.
In my opinion Phlesh are a very great sounding gothic black metal solo project and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this recording. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "The Stale Birth" "Dragon Chaser" "Total Fucking Disorder" and "Suicide, my Love". 8 out of 10.
https://phleshmetal.bandcamp.com/album/the-decomposing