I've been covering a lot of extreme metal recently from different corners of Europe. Bands from the across the spectrum, with different influences, sounds and aesthetics. It's the turn of our cousins from the US now to show us what they're made of. The first band I'm going to cover on this quest is Miami based Black/Death duo Inferion.
The Desolate is their most recent release, self-released by the duo on January of this year.
Tracklist:-
1. Among The Twilight
2. Forgotten Ethereal Visions
3. It Began With Blood
4. The Killing Process
5. Moment of Anger
6. Numerous Lacerations
7. Purest Evil
8. Underlife
9. Withering Deities
The Americans have always had a certain way of spewing forth
disgusting slabs of Black/Death metal and Inferion are no exception. Their
vocals are raw but the sound of their record is very clean and heavy. If first
song Among The Twilight is anything to go by, they seem to get a good balance
between harshness, brutality and musical skill. They don't go for all out speed
or aggression and behind the percussion and vocals, the music at times hints
towards a more atmospheric, ambient path. They take their influences from their
European peers at points on this record and don't sound like they want to bite
the head of a poor unsuspecting mammal.
The varied lengths of their songs seem to be well judged
too, as they are able to present enough ideas and variation to satisfy even the
cvltest genre followers. The Black metal side of their sound doesn't outbalance
the death metal side so will keep fans of both camps happy. For a self-released
effort, this is damn good. They seem to have dodged many of the trappings that
plague bands that do it themselves, meaning that they come across as sounding
very accomplished and because of the production, the listener doesn't need
to put too much effort in to appreciate them.
It Began With Blood helps to crush the myth that duos don't
make as much noise as a full band, as the sound here is big, with crushing
drums and great guitar harmonies. The atmospheric riff and wall of noise
towards the end of the song, really bringing out the Black metal leanings of
Inferion. They are able to layer the guitar so it sounds like there is more
than one guitarist, that adds to the overall presentation here. The double bass
work during quieter moments of The Killing Process works really well and helps to
keep the music in check, with more rhythmic blasts taking over from the battery
that came before.
Scene purists may find too many modern touches in Inferion's
music, but they would be the one's missing out, as for a band to go in this
direction, they must have conviction and vision, which Inferion do. By not
skimping on the quality of their delivery, they are able to achieve maximum
impact. The clean guitar riffs at the
start of Moment of Anger are great to behold. This is also one of the fastest
songs on The Desolate, in terms of speed. They keep the battery up for just
over four minutes, with only subtle, short tempo changes bringing minimal
respite. Halfway through, they do slow the guitars down to give the impression
that the pace is changing, but the double bass still thrashes away in the
background which gives an indication of how hard drummer Nick Reyes is working.
Numerous Lacerations sounds like it should be a nasty piece
of Carcass inspired death metal, but in fact it's a very clever piece of
Doom/heavy metal inspired instrumental metal, with the melodic guitar that creates
the main atmosphere here. It seems to build up before both guitars fade in and out,
with subtle swathes of noise adding more feeling to the song. This heralds in
Purest Evil, which is a return to the pace of earlier songs. The texture on
show here, brings back images of evil incantation and rituals, which again is
imagery associated with Black/Death metal to a certain extent. I hear some rock n roll inspired riffs in the middle of this
too, but maybe that's just me getting too into it, you decide!
And so we've reached the final point of the album. Underlife
begins with some dirty, dual vocal screams and brilliant traditional twin
guitar, perfectly balancing the chaos of the percussion. The great thing about
The Desolate and Inferion as a whole is that they don't seem to promote the
whole "Worship Satan, Denounce human existence" idea. They are able
to sound despairingly heavy without ramming that ideology down people’s
throats. The closing bars of Underlife bring it to a close like an unforgiving
whirlwind. Withering Deities is the albums closer and embodies what Inferion
set out to achieve with The Desolate via clever musicianship and originality. It's a
great advert also for many of the forward thinking extreme metal bands in the
US, who have as yet been untouched by the commerciality of Black Metal at the
moment.
To hear what all the fuss is about, you can stream The Desolate in it's entirety via Inferion's Bandcamp page below:-
There is also a link on the page that you can follow to buy physical copies of The Desolate.
Inferion's Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inferion.
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