Defleshed
Fast Forward – The special edition re-mastered

November 2003
Released: 2003, Regain Records
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

This album is another re-mastered release from Regain Records. This is a re-release of album that has been deleted from the record stores but is now available again but this time with four bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are a re-make of the title track, this time called “Fast Forward 02” with a guest appearance by Calle from Deranged. The other three title tracks are covers of songs made by Nuclear Assault, Sepultura and Destruction. On this version of the album you get more music for your money, it contains 15 tracks instead of the original 11.



FAST FORWARD was recorded and mixed in Berno Studio in Malmö, Sweden during 1999. All of the music, lyrics and production was done by the band themselves. They have done a really great job with the production on this modern masterpiece as it sounds aggressive, hard and mean. As usual Mattias impresses behind his drums and I can’t understand how he manages to keep up the speed trough the songs. Lars does some really mean guitar riffs on this album that totally lack guitar solos, but it works anyway. Gustaf sounds brutal and aggressive in his lead vocals.



According to the band they play solid metal, but in my opinion it sounds more thrash metal, hard, fast thrash metal with numerous tempo changes in each song. This album release has been delayed because of some problems with the cover but now it’s finally here.



“The Return of the Flesh”, “Snowballing Blood” and “Fast Forward” are fast, brutal trash metal with Gustaf high up in the mix and some heavy guitar riffs by Lars. “The Heat from Another Sun” a heavy track but not as fast as the previous one. Here it’s more grinding metal with Lars and Gustaf high up in the sound picture. This song has a very short slower part at the end of it. “The Iron and the Maiden” is really high speed with Lars at top. “Proud to be Dead” is heavy, grinding trash metal. In the chorus Gustaf shows that he has quite a broad vocal range. “Wilder than Fire” is ultra fast thrash metal. Matte really shows what he can do behind the drums and Gustaf shows that he has depth in his voice. “Feeding Fatal Fairies” and “Lightning Strikes Twice” are songs with a lot of tempo changes that slow down at the end. “Domination of the Sub-Queen” is a heavy, fast and technical song where the speed is high but not ultra-high. “Speeding the Ways” has an intro with drums and guitar and it’s a short stop with only Lars before it all sets off. That song finishes off the original release and now comes the bonus tracks. It starts off with a re make off the title track “Fast Forward” fast thrash metal with the vocals shared by Gustaf and Calle Fäldt from Deranged. Calle has a more growling singing style compared to Gustafs more angry vocals. It works really well, but I prefer the original version. After that come the three cover songs. First out is “Radiation Sickness” by Nuclear Assault which is an old school thrash metal. “Beneath the Remains” by Sepultura where Defleshed does the song better than the original. “Curse of the Gods” by Destruction. Defleshed sticks mostly to the original songs. On this three songs Lars does guitar solos also.



This is brilliant thrash metal just as it should sound like. I have nothing bad to say about this at all. All of the songs are really strong and I don’t have any favourite. If you’re a fan of thrash metal you should definitely check out this Swedish band. Their new album ROYAL STRAIGHT FLESH I strongly recommend as the lords of solid metal have delivered a brilliant album.