There’s something about the New York death metal scene that is always worth the listen. From bands such as Suffocation, Skinless, Pyrexia, Dehumanized, Internal Bleeding and Baphomet, they all each have created instant bangers upon another. Now in the new decade, we have Afterbirth. Since 1993, they’ve been quite the welcome in the realms of extreme music and in 2017 they’ve brought the fire in the sound they created with The Time Traveler’s Dilemma and it was well worth the anticipation all around. Now comes 2020, we have the latest offering from the band with the sophomore full-length from Unique Leader Records titled Four Dimensional Flesh. While this band relied on the gory, and death side of things, they’ve started to branch out on their lyricism that’s now reflected on science fiction, space, and abstract.
Musically, this album is a testament of time which Afterbirth not only broken the mold and shell out of their own way, but this is considered to be a modern day masterpiece for brutal death metal. It’s got grossed out vocals, original songwriting, perfect hybrids of natural and distinctive compositions and let me say the artwork for the record is astonishing. From crushing guitar melodies, groovy bass and drum work, to the wonderful Wormed-esque instrumentals, it’s a paradise written all over. The atmosphere, production, originality, creativity behind Afterbirth’s talented musicians is a delightful, wonderfully eclectic and a celestial journey through the future and vortexes of brilliancy, brutal, and crushing pieces of death metal this band has done to date.
Four Dimensional Flesh is the absolute pinnacle not only for Afterbirth, but for the extreme metal world due to it’s creative and uniquely timed off kilter drum sections to the very spacey and hypnotically grinding vibes that flow and cascade throughout the stratosphere. From songs such as Girl In Landscape, Black Hole Kaleidoscope, Swallowing Spiders and Beheading The Buddha this is the most hypnotic, brutalized, and mesmerizing albums you’ll hear in 2020. Fans of Artificial Brain, Defeated Sanity, Dying Fetus, and Devourment will know that Afterbirth proved they’ve experimented and maintained their brutal signature with this masterpiece, and all the guys in the band made a phenomenal job to innovate and inspire upcoming bands in the spectrum.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
