Check out this album’s CV: Steve Tucker (ex-Morbid Angel) does the vocals, Rune ‘Blasphemer’ Eriksen (ex-Mayhem) handles axes, and hip-hop legend Flo Mournier makes his first foray into metal on drums. Oh, and the whole thing is masterminded by the man whose name adorns the front cover: the Egyptian born, Brooklyn-based ‘conceptual artist’, who, among other things, designs the costumes for Attila Csihar and Sunn O))). Honestly, I don’t know what else Nader Sadek himself does here. The artwork, the videos… that sort of thing, it seems. The promo information attributes songwriting to Eriksen and Tucker.

This is death metal, of a standard that is sometimes very high, which overall is not enough to substantially alter the landscape of the genre. In the Flesh, for starters, is extremely short. Less than half an hour, with various insubstantial interludes thrown in. As Nigredo in Necromance faded out, I had assumed it was some creepy album centrepiece rather than its closing statement, only to be disabused by the sound of the tracklist repeating. As such, it ends on an unfortunate ‘is that it?’ note. Still, of the six-or-so proper tracks found here, some are eminently worth hearing (and others a bit ephemeral). There are all sorts of guest appearances (including Attila himself, as well as musicians from Monstrosity, Cattle Decapitation, and Krallice) though I’m not sure it really needed them except to give the album a star-studded gravitas.

Perhaps reflecting the nature of the lineup, the sound seems to shift around, though rarely straying far from a blasting death metal template. Proper opener (after a pointless ambient intro), Petrophillia, plunges you into an exhilirating death metal rush, with the drumming a classic Mournier clatter, before clawing at tantalising hints of Melechesh-like Eastern colour both in the rhythmic and tonal feel. Of This Flesh features supremely creepy vocal chanting reminiscent of Nile’s latest. These influences, hardly surprising given the guy's country of origin, also resurface in the brooding minimalism of the aforementioned closer. Sulffer is another standout, with its misshapen, jarring riffing evoking the last few records Blasphemer made with Mayhem. This otherworldly songwriting style fits the mannerisms of death metal very closely, and I wish more of In the Flesh sounded like it. At other times, unfortunately, it reminds me more of recent Pestilence or Deicide, except with the bad elements rather than the good highlighted. Mechanic Idolatory, for example, chunters away with a lot of brutality but without much sense of charm or groove; a truly knuckleheaded track. And aside from its maniacal guitar soloing, Soulless will turn few heads.

Thus, a good record but also a frustrating one, without a really clear vision of what it is aiming for. It is the sound of some metal stars having a good time, rather than a statement of artistic intent. The lineup alone will have a lot of people wanting to hear it, and whilst they will enjoy much of what they encounter they will probably not save a place for it, in years to come, as one of 2011’s most interesting death metal albums.