Alchemy of Flesh's Hellish Death Metal Waits Behind "Slipgates to Annihilation" (Early Track Stream)
While Doom is generally the obvious choice for “most metal video game,” its close relative Quake deserves to be mentioned more often than it is. Sure, the franchise has never really reclaimed the glory of the first two releases, which both terrified and delighted me as a child playing on a massive desktop PC with dial-up, but those two alone cement its place. It’s creepy, brutal, and essentially a look into the background worlds of death metal album art, which makes it ideal material for death metal, I’d say. Seeking to further meld the realms of video games and metal, Georgia-based one-man death metal outfit Alchemy of Flesh‘s upcoming album Ageless Abominations contains one such offering—among a host of other topics ranging from Silent Hill to Morrowind (still the best Elder Scrolls game, by the way). But for right now, get out your nailgun and prepare to enter the “Slipgates to Annihilation” with our premiere:
…
…
The reference in the song title is highly intentional—above all else, Alchemy of Flesh draws inspiration from Morbid Angel’s guitar tones and its arcane approach to destructive riffing, slurping from the swampy mire of the Florida death metal sound. This song in particular evokes a familiar feeling of being physically impacted by the cadence and character of the opening riff, but as the album as a whole develops, there’s a clear separation from the work that’s influenced this. Mostly avoiding lead work and chaotic solos, Ageless Abominations focuses on bludgeoning rhythmic chaos, only deviating from the punishing combination of guttural growls and square-edged riffs to introduce tempo switches and unexpected transitions. Atmosphere is not the goal here: turning listeners into bloody little giblets is.
Mastermind Tim Rowland comments:
After finishing the classic game, Quake (on PC), I thought it would be a cool idea to write the lyrics based on the game and call it “Slipgates to Annihilation” as a perfect ode to one of my favorite Death Metal albums from Morbid Angel, Gateways to Annihilation. In Quake, slipgates are what you use to move from one level to the next and there always seems to be annihilation around every turn. I thought it was the perfect fit!
…
Ageless Abominations releases August 13th, 2021 via Redefining Darkness
