Agony of the Bleeding Flesh – Everlasting Piracy (2013)

Hailing from France today we have the self-labeled Metal pirates of Agony of the Bleeding Flesh and their exciting debut release “Everlasting Piracy”. Delivering seven tracks of well-crafted Black Metal, the band focuses on having a powerful and direct sound with mostly traditional elements and an enhanced sense of catchiness.

The album opens with a very solemn acoustic intro to the track “Those Buried Treasures” and it slowly builds up as the distorted guitars and shrieks come in. The drumming is quite solid and perfectly captured by the production of this release. Things gradually get more interesting as “The Call of The Sea” and “Return from Death” continue the riffing onslaught. The band perfectly combines fast paced sections with slower interludes to allow the music to grow and capture the listener’s attention.

Our favorite track in this release is the crushing “Invading Souls”, a track that has that French Black Metal signature of bands like Glorior Belli (older) and Merrimack. The BM scene in France is rapidly growing and many quality bands are gaining recognition for their excellent music and Agony of the Bleeding Flesh has what it takes to be one of them. Heavy but perfectly paced, “Blood Of The Lords” shows the listener that songs don’t have to be at 4000 bpm’s in order to be brutal and effective. The band’s sense of tempo is quite impressive and they don’t have to abuse speed to achieve brutality.

For the fans of catchier stuff, “To Penetrate” has that DM chugging feeling in a BM context, and the closer “Pas de Pitié, Pas de Remords” features some killer drumming. Overall, we have to say that “Everlasting Piracy” is quite an entertaining and well-crafted release. The band has a style of their own and with the years they can only get better. As an added bonus, the artwork of this release was done by none other than Metastazis, so you know is well thought out and quite fitting. We totally recommend you pick up a copy of this digipack and add it to your BM collection as soon as possible.

Label: Self-Released

Release: March 30th, 2013

Genre: Black Metal

Country: France