Review by Jack on January 6, 2005.

No misinterpreting Defleshed’s Royal Straight Flesh... 30 minutes long, 11 songs (or ‘battle hymns’ as they refer to them), titles such as "Warborn" and "Blood Brigade": Fast and furious death metal.

I don’t think it crossed the collective mind of Defleshed to contemplate anything along the lines of easing their audience into the onslaught they are here to provide. Each of their ‘battle hymns’ are slick 2-3 minute numbers with the intention to deliver a visceral shot of death metal by any means possible. Guttural death roars, spine-splittingly catchy riffs (guaranteed to remove your ribcage) and deadly precision from the rhythm section make up each and every song.

As much as a good time Defleshed provide with Royal Straight Flesh it’s pretty difficult to discern the difference from one track to the next and the album comes across as one long track opposed to 11 different songs with their own identities. But this isn’t such a bad thing. A 30 minute death metal song with plenty of tempo changes and groove? I can surely deal with that.

There are no plush keyboards here. Defleshed have a forged an album that is aimed to inflict as much aural punishment as humanly possible, and they succeed.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10