I’ve been waiting upon this release since the moment I discovered Colorado’s Crown Magnetar and truth be told, this new evolution and sound this band is taking for the deathcore genre is leaps and bounds a force to be reckoning with. As someone who appreciates the deathcore genre, Crown Magnetar in my opinion are one of my top favorites not only in the underground spectrum, but for the genre as a whole. Musically, they take heavy influences taking elements of death metal, technical death, black metal and little traces of slam within the compositions displayed is unique, organic, creative and very articulating to see a band I’ve been following for quite sometime to see them grow and get their name pushed to the scene needs to be talked about more often.
Musically, this new album is the continuation prior to the last release, The Prophet Of Disgust which took the band’s sporadic lead-guitar melodies, merciless blast beats and breakdowns to unleash bone-chilling atmospheres they’ve fully managed to maintain a much more energetic progression while keeping the instrumentals naturalistic. Matter of fact, these musicians not only are very compassionate to what they’re writing terms of consistency and delivering such chaotic, claustrophobic and blackened passages within the complimented instrumentals, they’ve also served to contribute a more matured, and extremely well-designed craftsmanship with songs such as Icon Of Sin, Black Lotus, There Is No Life Without Suffering and Death Architect relied on radical tempo-altering breakdowns, tormented high to low pitched screams, demented guitar solos and a blackened deathcore atmosphere say a band like Carnifex and the album Slow Death or the technicality signatures from Thy Art Is Murder or Aversions Crown to the mixture which in my opinion it definitely made this album a punishing touch beginning to end.
Perhaps the album’s highlight is the songwriting since it has improved drastically compared to The Prophet Of Disgust which contained lyrical themes from anti-religion, society, corruption, propaganda and other subjective matter but this time around, they’ve taken the lyrical content to whole new level making it feel more matured and comprehended as the lyrics feel realistic and appropriate at times. Even the secondary half of this album is another memorable experience after giving the album multiple listens as each track contains prominent displays of outstanding musicianship and commandments of constitutional progressions is possibly the band’s groundbreaking effort. The Codex Of Flesh has once again taken the genre and heaviness for extreme metal to achieve something more greater than it meets the eye and if you’re a fan of the band’s past work then you’ll definitely find something to enjoy.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
