to come straight to the point, in my humble opinion "the harvest wombs" is a masterpiece. now that i got this off of my chest, i can now start from the beginning. i came across the name fallujah quite a few times in the past, especially recently because the band released their new record "dreamless" via nuclear blast, unfortunately there was just an u.s. vinyl version but more of this later. two weeks ago i was browsing through the metal vinyl section at hhv.de just to kill some time. usually such a deed is followed by a loss of my money. this time wasn't any different.
i stumbled upon a coloured copy of fallujah's first album "the harvest wombs" and the first thing that looked familiar was the cover artwork. it had a strong "the discovery" resemblance, which is my favourite record of born of osiris. by the way cameron gray was the artist responsible for both artworks. i didn't even bother to listen to some songs of the album, somehow i had the feeling that this was going to be a scorcher. together with another record i went through the payment procedure and waited for my stuff to arrive.
the last two weeks saw this baby on heavy rotation on my turntable. i played "the harvest wombs" almost every day and it just seems to get better by every spin. fallujah plays a lovely brand of modern technical death metal. what makes them special to me is the ambient share in their sound. usually ambient/black metal is not for me but fallujah found a way to include a few parts here and there to round out their relentless metal hybrid. although it is almost impossible for me to pick a favourite, i think you can't do no wrong with "ritual of godflesh" and the intrumental title track.
the presentation by unique leader records is awesome. the record comes in a gatefold sleeve. the left gate with cover artwork is glued together which gives the whole affair a sturdy feel. again i have to praise the futuristic yet spiritualistic art of cameron gray all throughout the gatefold - love it. the vinyl colour pattern is top notch as well. i am really happy to have been able to snag one of those oxblood and bone merge copies. it's really the icing on the cake to the listening experience. unfortunately i don't know how many of these have been pressed. the upcoming posts will feature more technical death metal stuff and more unique leader releases. stay tuned! unique leader records. 2011.
