Just when I thought Metal Blade had lost their status for real by cranking out shitty release after another, a glimmer of hope appears on the horizon. In an unlikely form, I must say, because I have for a fact once before reviewed two Fleshcrawl albums but since I cannot remember anything about it I didn`t have much hope for this one, Soulskinner. *buzzz*, wrong. Soulskinner is, at least for now, a very interesting album.

Even though Fleshcrawl are a bunch of Germans, they deathmetal is unmistakenly of the Swedish variety. Explaining what Soulskinner sounds like is plain easy: imagine what Entombed would be doing now if they would have gone the deathmetal way instead of the rock`n`roll way. Yes, Fleshcrawl is a more-than-worthy follow-up for the Entombed of the pre-Wolverine Blues era.

Thick, whirring guitar and bass combos, the same pounding drums; it`s just the vocals that are quite different. More evil, though also less diverse. Still, a good match for the Swedes.

With Soulskinner, Fleshcrawl has spawned an album unto the world that is a must-have for all those Entombed-lovers out there who felt betrayed with the path they are walking nowadays. Even though originality is lacking by far, songs like "Carved In Flesh" or "Deathvastation" will have anybody banging his head to the beat! And Fleshcrawl doesn`t need a lame Judas Priest cover to speak for themselves; without it, they are good enough.