Flesh Field
On Enmity
Metropolis/Dependent
The return of cult US act Flesh Field in 2023 felt like such a surprise that the specific changes core member Ian Ross had made to the project’s densely packed, turn of the millennium cyber industrial sound took a few listens to register. But second comeback LP On Enmity puts the fine-tuning of Flesh Field’s sounds, specifically regarding guitars and vocals, into clearer focus while also delivering a high-def return of the dramatic bombast of the classic material.
The addition of industrial rock guitar to Flesh Field’s speedy, acidic programming was an apt fit for Voice Of The Echo Chamber‘s rumination on uniquely American patterns of self-isolation and violent destruction, but on this new record (not a formal concept record like its predecessor but one themed around responses to traumas, large and small) the guitar’s been cooked down and blended into the mix of orchestral and industrial programming Flesh Field zeroed in on before the turn of the millenium. The payoffs of this are multifold, from the chug of “Molten Resolve”‘s guitars being held aloft by swarming bass sweeps and tight lattices of percussion programming, to “Omnicide”‘s rhythmic breakdowns between driving riffs. The latter opening the album feels especially significant; frankly, it’s the sort of callback to the 90s glories of giants like Front Line Assembly and KMFDM which either band would give their eyeteeth to pen today.
But for those who might be hoping for Flesh Field to continue on with what made them such a unique and bracing quantity upon their original arrival, On Enmity has plenty to offer. The chewy laser blast synths and flamboyant choral and orchestral pads of “The Devil You Know” call back to any number of Belief Control tracks, while the cinematic sturm und drang of “Matthew 7:1”, trading orchestral and standalone strings back and forth atop wormy programming and snappy drums, feels like a reprisal of the above on the other side of iVardensphere’s read of tribal industrial. Late album highlight “We Will Be Forgotten”, a grand martial requiem for all human strife and achievement turned over by history, brings all of Ross’ technical and compositional ambitions together in a surprisingly affecting piece, while also keeping his vocals in the spotlight (a welcome change from their muted presence on Echo Chamber).
On Enmity feels like Flesh Field’s most ambitious LP, but also surprisingly its most centered and rounded one. Few of its moves (apart from the acoustic drawl of “Unwanted” and some occasional bass flourishes) ever stray too far from the center of what Flesh Field, and perhaps electro-industrial music in general, has ever felt like, yet those moves clarify and elevate that history. Recommended.
Full disclosure: an interview of Ross was conducted by I Die: You Die’s other writer, Alex Kennedy, for the liner notes of On Enmity‘s European release. That interview was conducted wholly separate from this writer and this review.
