Sins of Omission - Flesh On Your Bones (2001)

Flesh On Your Bones is more or less a direct continuation of the debut's style, although perhaps a bit blunter and more centrally thrash-oriented. They still bust out some of those precise, surgical harmonies in spots, and the production of the rhythm guitars still has that punch to it that sends them right past your defenses, but I don't know that the songs here had quite the same strength as their predecessors. That said, Flesh On Your Bones is a solid sophomore which I can revisit often enough without any tangible disappointment, because it keeps on mission and remains as professional and driven as the debut. Alright, the one real exception might be the cover art, which is some bland digital looking image of skeletons in a sandstorm or something, but I mean unless you're going to hire the same artist or another legend, what can ya do?

This is definitely an elbow greaser, dependable with lots of headbanging tracks even where the rhythm guitars don't spit out as many of the starker melodies to fetch your attention. They still exist, but they tend to be more compact or peripheral, and they instead flex between the thrashing low end thrust to some more atmospheric, open phrases as in the midst of "Revolution". The lead guitars are sill very well written, and I actually feel the drums here a bit more intense and thunderous than they were on The Creation. It's just an album that hangs down in that lower end more often as a rule. Some clean vocals are attempted which didn't really fire me up, but they were at least competent and confident and made as much sense as they could with the band taking a little risk or two. A lot of the album is so clinically thrashy that it almost reminds me of a Slaughter of the Soul infused with some of the Pestilence debut, Mallevs Maleficarvm, perhaps an obscure comparison but a lethal one I feel in tunes like "Angel Killers".

As I said with The Creation, this is a very good band, even if a bit derivative, and while I don't think they took this style to the new levels that Soilwork and Darkane did, their albums were and remain fun to listen through, and definitely a memorable name to sound off whenever I meet someone who is looking for more in this Swedish melodic death/thrash niche. They were built to last, and though they only endured a fairly short career, they never gave themselves the chance to burn out. Check out both albums and hear it done right.

Verdict: Win [8/10]