Ageless Abominations, the debut album from Alchemy of Flesh, is death metal through and through. A new solo project from multi-instrumentalist Tim Rowland, Ageless Abominations is rooted firmly in the Florida style of American death metal, looking to Morbid Angel as the main inspiration behind the sound.
“Going into this album, the main intention from day one was to just write the most colossal death metal I could muster,” Rowland explains. “Riffs and rhythms that could translate well into a live setting. I just wanted to do exactly the shit I liked the most. I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel or follow the current trends in this kind of death metal rebirth / boom of old-school death metal.
“My favorite sound growing up was first based on what drumming I liked the most, so I instantly gravitated toward the crazy Pete Sandoval stuff in Morbid Angel, specifically the albums Domination through Gateways.. . Drums were my first, and what I still consider my main instrument. Morbid Angel was also the band I connected to being a guitarist. There’s just something esoteric about Trey’s playing that’s just really hard to pin down, especially with my favorite, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh.
“When I came up with the concept to do something in this vein years ago, I just didn’t have the tools to pull it off, so I shelved the idea… and about six or seven years later, here we are! This is exactly the album I wanted to write and under the same name I intended to use back then, Alchemy of Flesh. When it came to lyrics, I used it as an opportunity to express what I actually wanted to write about, versus the standard death metal tropes. I wrote about everything from Morrowind to Quake and Tomb Raider 2, with a little worship of the Ancient Ones thrown in for good measure. All in all, what started as just a concept to do something in the vein of my favorite band, turned out to be a little more diverse than that in the end I think, and I’m totally satisfied with the result.”
Alchemy of Flesh succeed at crafting death metal that feels large in its execution; songs like “Knotter of Entrails” features riffs that loom and creep before going in for the kill, a strong contrast to “Lave Storm” or “House of Earth,” which grab the listener with driving, straight-ahead approach.
Ageless Abominations doesn’t seek to be anything more than a pure death metal album and it doesn’t need to. The nine songs on the album—which also features old-school feeling cover art by Mike Browning—display a precise dedication to the genre. Alchemy of Flesh are set to release Ageless Abominations through Redefining Darkness on August 13, but the album is streaming below.
