Don’t judge a bumper car ride by the airbrush above its entry! Also don’t talk about bumper cars when it’s actually a rollercoaster!
Confused? Ok, let me clear it up: Even if the colourful helloweenish cover artwork of Achterbahnekstase (“Rollercoaster Ecstasy””) may suggest a book written in Horror Punk, Grindcore or maybe Oldschool Death Metal, and the album title is even further away from the conventions of its actual genre, the second full length of Flesia actually is, for the most part, in fact a Black Metal record.
But while the opener “Druck” (“Pressure”) relentlessly pummels your ears in an eleven minutes lasting blast beat inferno with few breaks for mid-tempo or Crust Punk style passages, while the guitars just keep tirelessly eviscerating, you realize, that something is strangely off in the sound of the Eastern German trio. There’s a sludgy weight on their sound that just doesn’t fully line-up with what you’d expect from a Black Metal band.
You probably have to see them perform live or be told about it to even entertain the idea, but the guitar sound secret is not only that their wall of sonic madness is conjured only by one guy instead of a plural of players, but also that this one guy actually doesn’t even play guitar at all, but bass! So yes, the atypical constellation of this line-up is just bass, drums and a singer in permanently screaming, screeching and gurgling frenzy - which is also the translation of the album’s even longer second track “Raserei”, which gives the listener a first breather from the constant onslaught with a couple of minutes of extremely minimalist gnarly Doom meeting Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” drum solo vibes.
The even longer third and final track “Im Kreis Nach unten” fully lives up to its name and really feels like it’s ceaselessly spiraling “in a circle downwards”, not only in the predominant ferociously fast parts, but also when the drums find themselves in Thrash pace or even take pause for a Doom breakdown again. The sheer amount of sounds and frequencies the bass produces – from the low metallic rattle to the rich mids and the all-encompassing wall of white noise - just has a dizzying effect and makes you stumble through the hazy chaos like a deer that has been hit by a car.
Flesia’s apparent mission to make Black Metal chaotic, raw and rebellious again – yet on their own terms - is a full success. In its ubiquitous staggering exaggeratedness this rollercoaster ride indeed feeds a euphoric or already hysteric? feeling of ecstasy. Achterbahnekstase achieved!
There’s just one thing I dislike about this album - and to be fair it’s a pretty common failure: It doesn’t have the end it deserves. The tracks somehow end way too apruptly and we’re left hanging in the air, until the amusement park security hopefully saves us.
