(written by Islander)
Today we again find ourselves in the favored position of premiering a song from an album by the long-running Czech death metal band Cutterred Flesh.
We have done this twice before, for each of their two most recent albums before this newest one. The last time, three years ago, we praised “the band’s capacity for inflicting bombastic, mind-mauling, and terrifically brutalizing punishment, while also throwing in unexpected changes that keep listeners perched on their toes.” And lo and behold, they are doing that again.
The name of their new album is The Shapes of Hidden Malice, and it will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on November 13th. Each song on the record represents a unique horror story inspired by classic authors. In the band’s words: “They dissect the mechanisms of fear and translate them into sound”.
The song we have for you today (the fourth single to be revealed so far) is “The Letter U“.
The inspiration for this song is a short story titled The Letter U (A Madman’s Manuscript) by the Italian writer Iginio Ugo Tarchetti (1839 – 1869). As the band describe, the story “explores obsession as a mental infection”: “A single symbol invades thought, warping language, memory, and identity until nothing else can exist. The terror is intimate and absolute — madness born not from fear, but from fixation”.
The song’s lyrics narrate this mental unraveling in considerably greater detail. This particular fixation, focused on nothing more than a single letter, may seem absurd, but for that very reason the debilitating obsession strangely becomes even more unnerving.
As for the music, the song begins with grand but ominous symphonic fanfares pierced by frantically rippling keys, and the words begin to come forth in theatrical, near-sung expressions that quickly begin to sound more feverish and unhinged.
It’s a surprising way to begin, but Cutterred Flesh then start manifesting the narrator’s warping mind in other ways — initially with skull-busting beats, gut-slugging bass-lines, freakishly and frenetically squirming guitars, and bellowing roars, and then with a multitude of other twists and turns.
They constantly change tempos, drum patterns, and riffing. They cause the music to jolt and jab, to sizzle and swarm, to maniacally blurt and furiously blast — and as the madness takes hold, the vocals convert from monstrous gutturals to hair-on-fire screams. The band generate berserk instrumental convulsions but also inflict punishing bursts of brutalizing trauma.
Technically, the performance is very impressive, and the band’s wild and head-spinning contortions suit this tale of bizarre obsession and ensuing madness very well indeed.
CUTTERRED FLESH Lineup:
Jiří Krš: Vocals
Vitalij Novak: Guitars
Martin Meyer: Guitars
Ondřej Klaban: Bass
Jakub Bayer: Drums
Guest Musician: Hana Hajdová (Silent Stream of Godless Elegy) guest vocals on “The Feather Pillow”
Transcending Obscurity will release The Shapes of Hidden Malice on vinyl LP, jewel-case CD, and digital formats, with an array of apparel and other merch featuring the cover art painted by the masterful Eliran Kantor. T.O. recommends the album for fans of: Aborted, Cattle Decapitation, Benighted, Devourment, Enragement.
Along with the usual links we’re also providing videos for three previously released songs from the album — “The Mad Farmstead“, “The King in Yellow“, and “The Colour Out of Space“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://cutterredfleshband.bandcamp.com/
http://us.tometal.com/
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
FOLLOW CUTTERRED FLESH:
https://facebook.com/CutterredFlesh
https://instagram.com/cutterred_flesh