Nader Sadek – In The Flesh

Hello ladies and gentlemen. Fasten your seatbelts ’cause this might get you by the balls. What we’ve got here is the supergroup case of 2011. An album we didn’t see coming, we wouldn’t even think about and we won’t help but living with in the next years to come. We have to start by giving our thanks to mister Nader Sadek, a talented and crafted artist from Cairo, Egypt who managed to help Mayhem with live visual effects and is in general very well known to the metal community for his work. What he came up with this time was a musical monstrosity with the perfect partners in crime: Steve Tucker on vocals, known from his amazing vocal duties in Ceremony and Morbid Angel, Rune Ericksen (a.k.a. Blasphemer), former Mayhem shredder and the blast machine from Cryptopsy called Flo Mournier. The bet as you can understand, is won without even the game getting started.

And to be honest, how can a result be less than impressive with such musicians? First of all let’s take things in order. Few can say that they didn’t miss Steve Tucker’s voice through the years. In this album, he gives the best performance of his life, like he’s been ressurected and left his body, only to return more fresh than ever, spitting every lyric in the face of commerciality and controversy such an album could create. He is direct and most of all, certain in each single word he sings. This time, with no bass duties on him, he is unleashed to do what only few in the past did. He puts you inside the concept of this release and won’t let you leave until you’re fully addicted to this new born beast.

Next mentioned is Rune Ericksen. Playing some insane and diverse riffs, the best he’s ever played in his career too, he shows another side of his capabilities, totally different than in his Mayhem days. Where were you hiding all these years? His compositions fit perfectly with Tucker’s voice and there is no room for exhibition here, just painful pickings on his guitar that when ”Petrophilia” starts, you just know what shall follow. Last but not least is Flo Mournier, which sounds like the drummer we all loved in his first days in Cryptopsy. Many of us have waited for more than a decade for such stuff by Flo and this time he rewards us in the best possible way. The mid tempo double bass parts that fill some tracks are only the calm before the storm when he decides to release the fury driven by his hands. Total carnage of the skins, strings and mics. What else do you want?

I know what many people would like though, 30 minutes of duration are not long enough for this album. Once it starts, until you realize what hit you, you are left unable to speak when it’s over. And this unexplained urge to push the play button again, is that which creates questions. ”Why do I want to sink again in this suffocatin atmosphere? Didn’t I just get enough of it?”. And the obvious answer is certainly negative. Add to this the fact that we deal with three accompanying interludes, and the suffocating instrumental ”Nigredo In Necromance” which closes the album, and once you understand that only five full songs made you fill this way, then you are ready to crave for the next album of the band, before you pass time with ”In The Flesh”.

As far as the artistic part is concerned, the two videos the band for the album, with the aforementioned instrumental being the first (where Nader Sadek himself seems like torturing a guitar) and ”Sulffer” with Steve Tucker looking like the beast of the Apocalypse, simply add more bonuses to all mentioned above. This is not another death metal release and this is not another project whose duration may keep less than wanted. These gentlemen are willing to stay and what scares me more is the future. If we welcome them to our lives and ears in this way, who knows what they save for the next album. In any case, I declare myself as defeated and I am more than willing to follow this force, wherever they go, whatever they do. This album really hits you in the flesh. Who dares avoiding its consequences? Hands up? Nobody? I thought so…