Fleshcrawl

1987-1997

Fleshcrawl was formed by Stefan Hanus and Bastian Herzog in 1987 under the name Morgöth.[1] In 1990, after original lead vocalist Wendelin Dopfer left the band, Alex Pretzer was signed on, the band changed their name to Suffocation, and released a demo tape called Festering Flesh. After the release of their demo tape, the band was forced to change their name because the American band, Suffocation, had released their first vinyl cut earlier. The band was officially renamed to Fleshcrawl and then released their first 7" EP Lost in a Grave in 1991 through Morbid Records.

In 1992, Fleshcrawl signed a recording contract with Black Mark Production, and on June 1992, they recorded their debut studio album, Descend Into The Absurd, at Montezuma Studios. Shortly after the release of Descend Into The Absurd, Mike Hanus, brother to founding member Stefan Hanus, replaced Gero Schmidt as one of the guitarists, and in 1993, they began recording their second studio album, Impurity, at Dan Swanö's Unisound Studio.

In 1995, Markus Amann left the band and Mike Hanus took over as the bassist for studio sessions. In December 1995, Fleshcrawl recorded their third studio album, Bloodsoul, which was released in 1996. Shortly after the release of Bloodsoul, Fleshcrawl began recording their fourth studio album, Bloodred Massacre, which was released in 1997 with Sven Gross replacing Alex Pretzer as the lead vocalist. Both albums were recorded at Abyss Studios by Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy.[2]

1998-present

In 1998, Tobias Schick took over as the new bassist, allowing Mike Hanus to return to playing guitar exclusively. After the release of Bloodred Massacre, Fleshcrawl left Black Mark Production and joined a monthlong tour with Kataklysm and Vader, as well as participating in festivals with Cannibal Corpse and Dark Funeral. After returning from their tour, Fleshcrawl signed a recording contract with Metal Blade Records, and in January 2000, they released their fifth studio album, As Blood Rains from the Sky, We Walk the Path of Endless Fire, which was produced at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden.

On September 2001, Fleshcrawl began recording their sixth studio album, Soulskinner at Studio Underground in Västeras, Sweden. In 2002, Stefan Hanus was replaced by Oliver Grbavac and the band played at Wacken Open Air. On November 2002, Fleshcrawl played their first tour in Japan in support of Hypocrisy.[3]

During 2003, the band played few live shows in order to focus on writing their seventh studio album. On November 2003, Fleshcrawl again entered Studio Underground in Sweden to record their seventh studio album, Made of Flesh, which was musically similar to Soulskinner. Made Of Flesh was released on February 23, 2004 in Europe and Japan and on March 9, 2004 in the United States,[4] and following its release the band played a few shows, including the Summer Breeze Open Air heavy metal festival in Bavaria, Germany.

In 2005, Fleshcrawl released a compilation album, Crawling In Flesh - The Best of Fleshcrawl, which featured fifteen tracks from their first 4 full-length albums.[5]

In early 2005, Nico Scheffler replaced Tobias Schick as the band's bassist and the band began to work on their eighth studio album, Structures Of Death.[6] It was released in Europe on 24 September 2007. [7][8] Following the album's release, Fleshcrawl played a few shows around central Europe with bands such as Carnal Forge, Dismember, Enslaved, and Jungle Rot, and also played several metal festivals including the Protzen and Queens of Metal Open Air festivals.[9]

Style

Fleshcrawl, although their overall style has evolved over the years, remains quite similar- and often compared to such Scandinavian/melodic death metal bands as Grave and Dismember. Like these bands, Fleshcrawl creates a familiar, mid-range guitar tone with rapid tempos and short guitar solos consisting of fast, nimble alto-range progressions. However, the band's drumwork since the mid-to-late 1990s, composed mainly of high-speed, rolling double-bass drums and blast beats is comparable to that of many brutal death metal bands, such as Nile and Skinless, but at the same time, is down-tuned enough to not lose its kinship with the melodic death metal genre.[10]

Occasionally, they incorporate organs and other instruments, such as trumpets and kettle drums into their music, particularly in their instrumental intros and interludes.

Fleshcrawl's lyrical themes are generally characteristic of typical death metal, and encompass such concepts as insanity, horror, doomsday, war, murder, misanthropy, genocide, gore, slavery, and sacrifice, among other lyrical concepts familiar to death metal.