Ethereal Metal Webzine

Review by Ryan Murray | May 6, 2020 | Official Band Facebook

The Flesh Trading Company, a heavy/thrash metal band from Hassfurt Germany, was founded in 2011. Their newest release is an EP entitled “Franconian Witchcraft”, which released on March 7th, 2020.

While I do not relate to any of the songs lyrically at all, musically I enjoyed listening to this EP! Lyrically, the writing somewhat reminds me of Cradle of Filth. Musically, this reminds me of bands like CoF, In Flames and even Bullet For My Valentine.

Witches Sabbath
This song starts out with a slower dirge like guitar riff, before kicking into the main riff with screaming/growling vocals, but that are clear enough that you can understand them. The guitars in this song remind me faintly of “Mannequin“ by Cradle of Filth.

Salem
This song starts out much more up tempo right away, with brutal vocals and guitars. There’s also a lot of fast tremolo picking in this one. Really cool grooves in this one, especially at around 1:58!

Sculptor of Lies
This is a fast, upbeat song. The first 14 seconds actually reminds me of the intro to “Waking the Demon” by Bullet For My Valentine. This song has a good mix of metal, thrash and even straight forward rock riffs. 

Metal Maniacs
This song starts out with a pretty classic nu-metal like guitar riff, kinda reminiscent of BFMV. Just a straightforward metal song, and I think the title pretty much sums it up! 

Black Spell Conspiracy
This song starts off with spoken word and goes right into a pretty up tempo riff with harsh vocals. Again, this song mixes thrash riffs with newer metal sounding riffs, but it’s pretty catchy! A really nice guitar solo comes in at 2:35.

Into The Fire
This closing track also starts off with spoken word, but then goes into a pretty straight forward thrash riff. This song sees a smooth shift in and out of 6/8.

Overall, I’d give this album a 3.0 out of 5.0. While I can’t relate to any of the lyrical content, I did enjoy the instrumentation arrangements! There is very skilled musicianship throughout this album. The mix and mastering seems to be really nicely done as well. If you haven’t given “Franconian Witchcraft” a listen yet, please give it a go!