Fleshcrawl

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Fleshcrawl
Background information
Origin	Germany
Genre(s)	Death metal Melodic death metal Brutal death metal Thrash metal
Years active	1991 – Present
Label(s)	Metal Blade
Website	Official Site
Members
Sven Gross (vocals) Mike Hanus (guitar) Oliver Grbavac (guitar) Tobias Schick (bass) Bastian Herzog (drums)

Fleshcrawl is a German death metal band blending the brutal death metal and melodic death metal subgenres. Their most recent album, Made of Flesh, was released in 2004, under Metal Blade Records.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Members 2.1 Current 2.2 Former 3 Discography 4 External links

[edit] Biography

Fleshcrawl, formerly Morgöth, was forged in by Bastian Herzog and Stefan Hanus, who wanted to direct their musical styles into more extreme, more brutal forms. Originally, they had renamed themselves Suffocation, and released a demo cd in 1990 called "Festering Flesh," but were forced to change their because the up-and-coming American band Suffocation, who had released their first vinyl cut earlier that year. Comprised of Alex Pretzer (vocals), Stefan Hanus (guitars), Alfred Handke (guitars), Markus Amann (bass guitar) and Bastian Herzog (drums), Fleshcrawl was born and signed onto Morbid Records, and released a 7" EP entitled "Lost In A Grave."

A year later, they inked a contract with Black Mark Production, and in June of 1992, rocorded their debut album, "Descend Into The Absurd," with Giro Schmidt replacing Alfred Handke as the rhythm guitarist, at Montezuma Studios, Stockholm.

Shortly after the release of "Descend Into The Absurd," Mike Hanus replaced Giro Schmidt as one of the guitarists, and in 1993, they began recording their second full length album, "Impurity," at Dan Swanö's Unisound Studio. Fleshcrawl, for their release of "Impurity," received great reviews from the international press for their brutal and uncompromising Death Metal sound, not to mention their highly powered live shows. They proved their power at the Easter Bash Tour '95 where they were joined by Deicide, Cathedral and Brutal Truth.

After Markus Amann left the band in 1995, Mike Hanus took over as the bassist and Fleshcrawl began recording their 3rd full length release, "Bloodsoul," which was released in 1996. Shortly after the release of "Bloodsoul," Fleshcrawl began recording of "Bloodred Massacre," which was released in 1997 with Sven Gross replacing Alex Pretzer as the lead vocalist for the Brutal Death Quartet. Both releases were recorded at Abyss Studios by Peter Tägtgren (Vocalist for Bloodbath and Hypocrisy, and producer for various other Death Metal bands). "Bloodred Massacre," having a slightly new sound infused by the changing of vocalists while still retaining the same brutality and originality of their previous recordings, earned the best reviews for Fleshcrawl since the release of "Descend Into The Absurd."

In 1998, Tobias Schick occupied the long vacant bassist spot, allowing Mike Hanus to return to playing the guitar, and shortly thereafter, cut ties with Black Mark Productions and joined a month long tour with Kataklysm and Vader, and participated in Metal Festivals with Cannibal Corpse and Dark Funeral. After returning from their short tour, Fleshcrawl signed a contract with Metal Blade Records, and in January of 2000, their groundbreaking release, "As Blood Rains From The Sky... We Walk The Path Of Endless Fire," having been produced at Fredman Studios in Gothenburg late in 1999. This release was praised worldwide for its intensity and quality, and received the best reviews the band had ever gotten.

n June 2000 Fleshcrawl went out to tour Europe together with Vader and Vital Remains for a 25 show trek and followed this up with a few single shows and ourtdoor Metal Festivals, including the Czech Dynamo Festival and Summer Breeze Open Air. After preparing their materials for their second release on Metal Blade Records, Fleshcrawl supported Bolt Thrower in January of 2001 while they toured Germany and the Netherlands, then joined the Torture-Tour, supporting Six Feet Under. In September of that same year, Fleshcrawl entered the Studio Underground in Västeras, Sweden to begin recording their 6th album, "Soulskinner." After the final mastering of "Soulskinner," Fleshcrawl, Bolt Thrower, and Benediction played a short tour of europe in early 2002.

Having played a few single shows in Germany and Europe throughout spring and early summer 2002, Fleshcrawl performed on Wacken 2002, which turned out to be an incredibly successful experience for the band and their new guitarist, Oliver Grbavac, who joined in early 2002 to replace Mike Hanus, one of the founding members, who left for personal reasons. In the late summer of 2002, Fleshcrawl played a few minor shows throughout Germany to warm up for Westfallenfestival in Dortmund and their first ever tour of Japan, with Hypocrisy, the success of which made 2002 the most successful year of their career.

After having returned from Japan, Fleshcrawl started writing for the next album. During the year 2003 the band made itself scarce concerning live shows in order to intensely prepare the new song material for the follow-up to "Soulskinner". In November 2003, Fleshcrawl again headed to the Studio Underground in Sweden to record their 7th album, entitled "Made Of Flesh", which is sometimes considered the sequel to "Soulskinner," at least in musical terms. "Made Of Flesh" was released in February in Europe and Japan and in March in the United States; to support its release, Fleshcrawl toured with Six Feet Under in early 2004 in Europe and performed several single shows as well as on some of the major european openair festivals for extreme metal (Party-San OpenAir, Summer Breeze Open Air, Metalcamp Slovenia, Rock Harz, Skeleton Bash, Kaltenbach OpenAir).

In 2005, Fleshcrawl released a compilation album, "Crawling In Flesh - The Best of Fleshcrawl," which featured 15 of their earlier tracks.

[edit] Members

[edit] Current

• Sven Gross - vocals
• Mike Hanus - guitar, vocals
• Oliver Grbavac - guitar
• Bastian Herzog - drums, vocals
• Tobias Schick - bass guitar

[edit] Former

• Alex Pretzer - vocals (1991 - 1996)
• Stephan Hanus - guitar (1991 - 2003)
• Alfred Handke - guitar (1991 - 1992)
• Giro Schmidt - guitars (1992 - 1994)
• Markus Amann - bass (1991 - 1996)

[edit] Discography

• Lost in a Grave EP, 1991
• Descend into the Absurd Full-length, 1992
• Impurity Full-length, 1993
• Bloodsoul Full-length, 1996
• Bloodred Massacre Full-length, 1997
• As Blood Rains from the Sky... We Walk the Path of Endless Fire Full-length, 2000
• Soulskinner Full-length, 2002
• Made of Flesh Full-length, 2004
• Crawling in Flesh Best of/Compilation, 2005

[edit] External links

• Fleshcrawl Official Site
• VH1.com : Fleshcrawl