Fleshgrind is a band out of Chicago, Illinois that released their first demo all the way back in 1993, but didn’t release a full-length till 1997. Since then they’ve been busy, as Murder Without End is the bands 3rd full-length. The style played here by Fleshgrind is Death Metal that is a mix of older Florida Death Metal and more modern Death Metal forms. It’s far from original but Murder Without End is not without some killer tracks.

I’ve been hearing this style of Death Metal a lot lately. Once home to mostly Florida bands there are also a lot of young Californian bands playing this style lately: heavy guitars, lots of blasts, gurgled vocals, Cannibal Corpse styled lyrics, and not a whole lot of innovation. Though with that being said, Fleshgrind is from Chicago, as I mentioned, so Death Metal has spread all over the United States these days, which is a good thing. The main problem I have is a lot of these bands sound the same, and even within their own CD’s their songs blend together after time. Fleshgrind do not fall victim to this completely as they decide to throw in three songs at the end of this release that really change things up from the first 7 tracks. But the first 7 tracks are your standard fair Death Metal that is well played but not always the best written. The mix of double bass runs and blasts is adequate but most of the riffs over the blasts in the first couple of songs just aren’t any good. They aren’t interesting, they're boring, they sound uninspired; all those bad things a riff shouldn’t be. Then, within that same song they will burst into some killer Blood Red Throne styled riffs with fast drumming that are pure ass kickers: Duct Taped And Raped is a perfect example of this. There is a bit of inconsistency here because the band can completely destroy and then bore you to death in the same song. They get everything right with the 4th track, Enslaved To My Wrath though. Sure, we’ve heard it before but it’s still well done. The band slowly starts to become more consistent deeper into the track listing and finally at track 8, Libertine Atonement Fleshgrind completely throw a curve ball at the listener. This song has many slowed down and mid-paced sections that could fit right at home in a Death/Doom band and the riffs add a lot of atmosphere and aren’t typical for this style of Metal at all. Then with Pistol Whipped the band basically sounds like Nile. This is mostly a result of the phrasing and the riffs, but even one of the leads sounds almost Middle-Eastern; and much like the last song it’s a welcome addition to the CD because it’s something unexpected. Murder Without End then ends with a re-worked version of Holy Pedophile that appeared on their first demo. Obviously the core of the song was written back in the early 90’s and you can tell because it sounds perfect for the time, as it’s very catchy and could easily have fit on an early Death or Deicide release, or more recently, a Blood Red Throne CD.

The vocals are a mixed bag for Fleshgrind. Singer Rich Lipscomb has a very forceful and intense growl but he does, what I can only describe as, an extremely deep gurgle. The problem I have with it is that the vocals start to become very unintelligible. Basically, Lipscomb is grunting and even when reading along with the lyrics, I couldn’t even make them out. And since the “grunts” are very monotone it doesn’t help the songs stick out as much as they could have. Although, as mentioned, it’s not the only style employed. Everybody is mostly competent with their instruments, as a lot of cool bass fills are heard, and the drumming is definitely precise. The production is like the rest of the CD, adequate, but nothing show stopping like the production on Aborted’s latest, which basically means the production sounds like everyone else.

Murder Without End is one of those CD’s that starts out slow and then eventually ends on a high note so it has left a pleasant after-taste with me, but I can’t overlook the lack of originality populating most of this CD and the unintelligible vocals. You could do a lot worse, and the head banging sections and last three songs push this CD slightly above the 70 rating, but barely. Also, I have to give bonus marks for the insanely creepy piano intro that also shows up in short spurts in between songs. It's almost like the band is trying to subconciously make you a serial killer with this melody and thus I found it to be a nice little touch. Anyway, if you’re a huge fan of Cannibal Corpse styled Death Metal and must own everything then definitely buy this, but if you want to be more selective try before you buy.