Where it all began. Trading Pieces is the debut full-length of California’s Deeds of Flesh — recorded over four days in March 1996 at Moon Productions Studio and released by Repulse Records — and stands as one of the founding documents of brutal technical death metal as a genre. The album that launched Unique Leader Records’ entire aesthetic: dense, unpredictable, technically demanding, and mercilessly violent in equal measure. Eleven tracks — Carnivorous Ways, Born Then Torn Apart, the title track Trading Pieces, Hunting Humans, Impious Offerings, Acid Troops, Deeds of Flesh, Erected on Stakes, Chunks in the Shower, Blasted, and the closing Outro — built around Erik Lindmark’s riff architecture of labyrinthine complexity and guttural brutality, with Jacoby Kingston’s bass and vocal contributions and drumming that attacks with inhuman precision. The lyrics deal in human carnage with the unflinching directness characteristic of the genre at its most committed. Along with Inbreeding the Anthropophagi (1998), Trading Pieces forms the founding diptych of Deeds of Flesh’s legacy — two albums that set the template for American brutal death metal’s most technically ambitious era. This Canometal Records Chilean edition made a genuine cornerstone of the underground accessible in the region. Essential.

Aquí es donde todo comenzó. Trading Pieces es el debut full-length del californiano Deeds of Flesh — grabado en cuatro días en marzo de 1996 en Moon Productions Studio y publicado por Repulse Records — y es uno de los documentos fundacionales del brutal death metal técnico como género. El álbum que lanzó toda la estética de Unique Leader Records: denso, impredecible, técnicamente exigente y despiadadamente violento en igual medida. Once temas — Carnivorous Ways, Born Then Torn Apart, el homónimo Trading Pieces, Hunting Humans, Impious Offerings, Acid Troops, Deeds of Flesh, Erected on Stakes, Chunks in the Shower, Blasted y el Outro final — construidos en torno a la arquitectura de riffs laberíntica y brutal de Erik Lindmark, con las contribuciones vocales y de bajo de Jacoby Kingston y una batería que ataca con precisión inhumana. Las letras tratan la carnería humana con la directidad sin concesiones característica del género en su estado más comprometido. Junto a Inbreeding the Anthropophagi (1998), Trading Pieces forma el díptico fundacional del legado de Deeds of Flesh — dos álbumes que establecieron la plantilla para la era más técnicamente ambiciosa del brutal death metal americano. Esta edición chilena de Canometal Records puso una piedra angular del underground al alcance de la región. Imprescindible.

1. Carnivorous Ways 03:42
2. Born Then Torn Apart 02:09
3. Trading Pieces 02:50
4. Hunting Humans 02:44
5. Impious Offerings 03:00
6. Acid Troops 03:41
7. Deeds of Flesh 02:57
8. Erected on Stakes 01:59
9. Chunks in the Shower 02:29
10. Blasted 02:17
11. Outro 02:33