I never knew diving into metal at large would make one appreciate classical music more than you’d ever imagined. Haunting themes straight from the opera stage, ferociously shredded to fit the metal narrative. Unspeakable creations that you didn’t expect until you met their terrible fury. But all those classically trained ladies fronting many a band truly take the darkly metallic cake. Somehow the sugar-sweet high-pitched female offering goes well with all those Neanderthal musings Extreme Metal is full of.
Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s Veronica Bordacchini is one of them. Well actually, no, not quite. She acted more as some permanent session fixture of the weird until the band’s epic opus Opera hit the stage, that is. In other words, she was an outlier for the Italian Boyz of the Show Macabre from Perugia whenever they needed a female touch in their tune. And that perception didn’t change one iota when she got accepted as a full member back in ’20. But – how perceptions can be deceptive, right? Because this time, contrite RMR was totally floored once her contribution made the house tremble with its terrible roar.
Bordachini fully unleashed and in cahoots with the seething menace Francesco Paoli brings to the party on Opera? Quite, and that’s an unthinkable thought for past times. If you remember, Paoli suffered a severe climbing accident that almost sounded the death knell for FA. But he clawed himself back to fighting strength to pick up the baton again on behalf of his band. Paoli finally returned with a quiet red-hot fury that adds a ton of spice to an already spicy new record. And I daresay, the long and forced wait led to an explosion of ferocious creativity.
For Opera, King‘s majestic furor or Veleno‘s overwrought weirdo antics truly went out the door. You might get a hint here and there, as in War With My Soul containing some vibes of King‘s feisty drumming. But this record definitely is a new animal altogether. The band knocked the symphonic component out of the park by – approaching the mainstream some more. Meaning, Fleshgod Apocalypse took the idea of Symphonic Metal and Symphonic Death Metal to the next level, ‘a modo mio’ – as they say in Italian. To the point that the likes of Nightwish and Within Temptation might take heed. Because somebody just tore their often complacent and oddly comfortable fare brutally to pieces. Stiff competition delivered FA-style. Unforgivingly harsh metal gunning for the Symphonic Metal folks’ established behinds. I’m still laughing.
Opera slings the melodic parts with truly dark feral power, true. But – to think that AF completely abandoned their staccato metal madness is dead wrong, of course. Plenty of that weaves itself into the metal fabric of this new piece. And it always lives and dies with Paoli‘s terrible growls and spoken monologues, seconded by Bordacchini‘s often multilayered vocals and a choir straight from Hel’s kitchen.
You got it all. The dreamy leads, wild riffs, and absolutely stunning solos weave and wave about circus-like little ditties at breakneck speed. Add piano bridges and interludes to the fray, sometimes savage and sometimes pensively forlorn. Plus some abundant use of the harp and not-so-subtle orchestrations with strings from hell. And there you have it. You’ll again get a richly woven tapestry of a gazillion directions and styles hitting you all at once.
And this record is all about new dimensions, too. A crossroads where earthly metal somehow meets the otherworldly. For example, Paoli darkly muses about life’s meaning or something on Matricide 8.21. A track that feels like a Victorian tableau of sorts with clears seemingly straight from early Delain. Or take the outstanding Bloodclock, that graphic recital where the lead seemingly tries not to die on the rope hanging from a rockface. Always against the backdrop of the clock that – tick-tock, tick-tock – always risks running out on the unwilling main actor of the play. Or take Morphine Waltz’s vicious antics containing Bordacchini‘s metal croak that somehow seems to emerge from Cattle Decapitation’s clears.
Finally, I have never heard Fleshgod Apocalypse that dark, wild, and unhinged. Opera is next-level stuff of the likes we haven’t encountered before. Brutally arranged symphonics, melodic lava bombs drunk on raving-mad riffs, and heavy chugging. Drumming from hell that relentlessly beats the theme into you. But the raw, furious emotion and almost nuclear energy on Opera truly takes it all away. Paoli‘s almost frantic creative power energized all the other band members to truly converge and take this band’s musings to the next level.
Some die-hard metalheads will without a doubt cry foul because FA took their tune into a more melodic direction. But these folks need to knock it off and stop the damn whining. Opera is easily one of the best, if not the best record FA ever made. And it is exactly that (very slight) change of direction that made this happen. A truly stunning performance that commands our respect.
Ed’s note: And the record made it onto the 2024 Top 10 Records. Congrats!
Record Rating: 9/10 | Label: Nuclear Blast | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 23 August 2024