California’s Fallujah have evolved tremendously since their inception and their newest track, “Sapphire,” from their upcoming album The Flesh Prevails, is continued evidence of that. The song is premiering over at Metal Sucks but you can stream it after the jump.

The album’s gorgeous artwork (a collab between Poland’s Tomasz Alen Kopera and the band’s vocalist, Alex Hofmann) is a great visual representation of what “Sapphire” alone has to offer; a juxtaposition of brutal darkness and ethereal elegance. At first, the airy ambient layers may sound out of place over the shredding guitars and technical drum-work (almost as if two tracks are playing simultaneously), but as “Sapphire” progresses, these two vastly different areas combine into one epic offering that makes us anxious for what’s to come on the whole of The Flesh Prevails. This song alone, with so much going on, has us expecting the new Fallujah to serve as one of the best metal albums of 2014. These leads are tremendous, the drumming is impeccable, and the atmospheric keyboards add an eerie element that really makes it stand out. The moments of groove toward the end are a lot of fun, too.

You can pre-order the album now through Unique Leader before its official release on July 22. I’m buying the vinyl just for this song and the artwork alone. I’m sure the other 8 tracks will secure it as one of my best buys of the year.

Fallujah has just wrapped up their highly anticipated follow up to 2011’s The Harvest Wombs with what is surely one of the freshest and most emotive metal albums to be released in years, entitled The Flesh Prevails. The album was mixed, mastered, and engineered by Zach Ohren (Animosity, Suffocation, All Shall Perish) at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland CA over the course of a few months and features guest appearances from Christian Muenzner (Obscura, Necrophagist) and the voice of Roniit Alkayam.

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Brian Leak

Editor-In-Chief. King of forgetting drinks in the freezer. Pop culture pack rat. X-Phile. LOST apologist.

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