Article by Lance Viggiano.

ZOM is essentially a crust band who starched by a discordant boondock black metal sensibility resulting in parlor tunes to cap off a hard day picking potatoes. Neither being soaked in rye nor smoked out on Dublin can make this release stand out in the fields of barley. The riffs aren’t worth paying attention to and as background music it is simply too assertive so it tends to pinch you if your mood isn’t wearing the right color.

ZOM actually have a fair number of ideas per song on Flesh Assimilation which is somewhat unusual on the entertainment side of metal. Riffing is mainly inspired by Discharge, Amebix, Celtic Frost, Bathory, and Sodom and thankfully not totally incoherent; none of them actually sound random or out of place. Nothing here gets one’s green hills rolling though. Each song is freckled with feedback and raw noise to round out its intended atmosphere. Monotonous drunk guy, err “I’m so insane because of all this evil I’ve seen”, vocals suck the soul out of room much like the short angry man yelling incessantly while everyone else tries to enjoy a pint of the black stuff.

All things considered, Flesh Assimilation is an inoffensive release as nothing is outright make you want to kill yourself bad. In fact, the surface is well crafted and free of micks or blemishes. ZOM are competent craftsmen in the way that a baker who works at squishy white bread factory is gainfully employed. Still, it’s very difficult to justify letting the whole album cross your borders as ZOM run out of potatoes after a couple of sober listens. ZOM needs to be able to communicate more than “We like Guinness and have testicles!” to listeners. There’s not really a whole lot to say about generic I Love the 80s music like this and I’ve run out of Irish cliches. After a few pints of Flesh Assimilation, you will be bored and want to listen to Sodom instead of ZOM.

Tags: 2014, beer metal, Black Metal, crust, Crust Punk, crustcore, dark descent, dark descent records, flesh assimilation, funderground, Invictus Productions, ireland, noise, zom