CARVED IN FLESH

"Carved in Flesh" is a demo CD-R by Norwegian black metal act Ansur limited to 200 copies. The demo was initially released in 2005. "Carved in Flesh" was re-released in 2006 in cassette format. Limited to 100 handnumbered copies. So naturally we´re dealing with a pretty rare release. Depending on the popularity of the artist, these are not always as hard to get, as one might think.

The music on the 4 tracks featured on "Carved in Flesh" is pretty basic old school black metal. There are both heavy riffing and fast tremolo ditto and the atmosphere varies from majestic to cold and aggressive. The vocals deserve a special mention here as I really appreciate the extremely aggresssive delivery. Ansur are not one of those symphonic keyboard driven black metal act (Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Old Man´s Child...etc.), but then again they are not of the primitive (or "true" black metal if you will) kind either (Mayhem, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth...etc.), so they are somewhere in between but mostly related to the old school black metal style on this release.

The musicianship are generally on a good level. There are no deliberately sloppy playing on "Carved in Flesh" which sometimes seems to be a kind of virtue on other more raw and primitive black metal releases. The compositions are pretty well written but there are sections I could have done without. Sections which I simply find too primitive and generic.

The sound production is thin and noisy. I can understand why some would find a production like this appealing but I would have preferred a more professional sounding production. Upon conclusion I think "Carved in Flesh" shows promise. Not necessarily great promise but promise nonetheless. It´s not a very original sounding demo, but it´s pretty well played and the tracks are pretty solid so a 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.