(((O))) Review: Fleshvessel – Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded

Well, despite all the “best of the year” lists already being published, another fascinating creature comes crawling out of the extreme music underground. With the hammering title Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded, U.S. avant-garde death metal outfit Fleshvessel unleashes its second full-length album upon a world steeped in today’s turmoil.

Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded is a sonic journey where genre-bending collisions unfold as Fleshvessel rolls out a hyper-technical machinery that extends musical boundaries and violently dismantles any sense of listening comfort. The band members don’t limit themselves to classic extreme metal instrumentation. Alexander Torres, Sakda Srikoetkhruen, Troll Hart, Gwyn Hoetzer, and Colin MacAndrew also incorporate acoustic guitars, flute, clarinet, piano, synthesisers, viola, and a multitude of exotic instruments alongside skull-crushing death metal riffs and progressive song structures.

Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded consists of four expansive tracks—ranging from eight to seventeen minutes—that spiral like unstoppable sonic tornadoes. The vocals erupt in high-pitched metal falsettos, spoken-word passages, black metal shrieks, Demilich-like cavernous grunts, and sudden clean baritone outbursts. Fleshvessel fuses death metal, black jazz, folk, and black metal with ethereal and acoustic elements, welding them into a volatile mass before spewing it out in an eruption of experimental madness. Beneath the chaos, the intellectual lyrics confront human stubbornness and perseverance, framing them as both a curse and a possible path to salvation in the struggle for a better world.

Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded is not an easy nut to crack, but those who persevere and fully immerse themselves in the album are left with only two possible experiences. The first (ours): this album feels like a form of cathartic healing. The second: you’ll probably need therapy.