Flesh Field
Voice Of Reason – Metropolis Records
After laying dormant for a decade, Flesh Field rose majestically from the smoking ashes with 2023’s critically-acclaimed Voice Of The Echo Chamber full-length. Hot on it’s heels comes Voice Of Reason, an album length EP that acts as a companion piece to its predecessor, developing the concepts of political radicalisation and violence begun on that record. It seems that the electro-industrial music peddled by Flesh Field is the perfect vehicle to explore such themes, and the vast, cinematic vistas that composer Ian Ross creates offer a frightening glimpse of a not-too-distant, dystopian future. Containing seven new cuts and five remixes, Voice Of Reason makes its intentions clear with opener ‘Wounds Of War’, a track that marches with military precision and unleashes all sorts of mechanical mayhem. Some of the remixes seem superfluous; System Syn’s reworking of ‘Manifesto’ is lithe and creates too much light on an album that dabbles in darkness, yet Leæther Strip’s ‘Soldier’ works because it revels in the shade; it’s disconcerting and, just like Voice Of Reason, creates a real sense of unease.
Review by Peter Dennis