TRUExFEELING – ...Of Flesh And Steel

I’m taking a time travel back to the end of March 2024, when Sofia straight edge band TRUExFEELING released an absolute rager of an LP. Their debut album, …Of Flesh and Steel, came out through Bound By Modern Age Records out of Hamburg, Germany, sharing a label with bands such as UK straight edge rippers xapothecaryx and Hour of Reprisal, among many others.

I think this record has been slept on by both the hardcore and metal scenes. Yet, this is 27 minutes of pure, brutal beatdown hardcore with lashings of death metal from start to finish.

The album begins with a sense of foreboding, built around a marching snare beat and eerie synths. Then, sinister guitar chords creep in as the intro track, “x2024x”, gives the impression that something is coming. “Vermin” is the second track on the album, and it introduces the band’s sound with a swift blow to the jaw. The lyrics are every bit as hard as the music, and I get the impression that the words are directed at someone who has broken edge:

“No discipline, no morals

For you it was just another craze

No passion, no direction

We’re counting down your days”

This is militant straight edge. These are lyrics that would not look out of place on an Earth Crisis or xRepentancex record. The sonic assault on “Vermin” is relentless. The guitar tone is dirty and distorted, and you can feel the double kick drums pounding in your chest. It feels urgent and important, a sound that cannot be ignored.

For me, the next track, “Bleed as We Reign”, is the highlight of the album. There is no let-up in intensity here. It starts at a million miles an hour and never slows down. As expected, the lyrics carry a strong message of unwavering devotion to straight edge: the message, the lifestyle, the music. This is real “nailed to the X” substance.

The breakdown on this track is hard as nails. The nasty guitar tone and thunderous tom hits, followed by xChokex vocalist Grigor Stoilov (currently in Poison Ivy), are enough to get fists flying at any show.

“Bleed as we reign

Be cursed and forgotten

Bleed as we reign

The end for you is near

You bleed as we reign,

Where’s your honour, motherfucker?”

This is straight edge as a lifestyle, a movement, not a fad or a craze.

This is what it means.

“Forever straight edge. Forever strong.”

It would be remiss of me not to mention some of the other highlights on the LP. Tracks such as “Age of Disgrace” carry the same resolute lyrical content found throughout the record. Although much of the album is centred around the straight edge message, the writing remains engaging and impactful. It never feels tired or repetitive. Instead, the sincerity and devotion to the lifestyle come across in a sharp and direct way. Hard riffs, hard message.

The breakdown on “Age of Disgrace” is monstrous, made even more crushing by the ominous bass intro before the carnage and the single china cymbal hit before the track gets beautifully filthy. “Graveyard Honor” features one of the coolest two-step parts in any hardcore track I’ve heard in a while. Heads will be getting checked to this one. The breakdown hits like a wrecking ball, dragging the song to a violent end.

“Prevail” serves as an anti-fascist anthem. The song appears to reference the rise of far-right movements across Europe and the need to resist and fight back. As far as I’m concerned, this is a message that will always be welcome in hardcore. The lyrics are direct, urgent, and impossible to ignore.

I particularly enjoyed the gang vocal section: No rest until victory!