Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas

Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas (cool name, by the way) seems like the true debut and revamp of the sound the band produces. With new vocalist James Lee, along with his great death growls, the band proceeded with outstanding shrieking and some pig squealing here and there - nothing that takes from the hype. It also seems as the album cover for this record makes it as if it’s their most brutal record; displaying what appears to be an evil entity, rather than the simple outer space album covers.

While the music significantly improved, so has the production value and quality. The guitars are technically sound and rich, to fit in the brutal aspect of things; in development of what would later become the true music of Origin. I don’t think the bass is audible in some bits, but I’d say it’s good enough. The drums are so much better, the phenomenal John Longstreth (the drummer) laid some beating on them, as well as improving in his overall technical skill and providing the “gravity blast”. And James has done such a great job behind the vocals - I couldn’t care less for the original singer.

Inhuman is just an unstoppable beast of revving rhythmic power chords and blazing riffage, reinforced with the, well, inhuman drumming. Portal is a great example of a technical song, halfway through sounding like Gorguts: avant-garde-ish and dissonant. Insurrection is another powerful and brutal song, with consistent technical elements. These are just examples that encompass a fresh and respectable complied material.

Rest of the songs were decent, but not as captivating as those mentioned above. While sound good, especially Awaken the Suffering and Perversion of Hate, these songs are not as memorable. The Flattening of Emotions cover was not bad at all; sounds like an Origin type of song sound wise, yet not any different from the original. I thought it might be brutal; blast beats and death growls, changing the fundamentals of that song.

I’m glad the guys took their approach more seriously with this record; hired a stronger vocalist and delivered an original-sounding brutal/technical death metal product. Even though some songs weren’t as capturing as I wanted them to, others might like them more since they have potential. What’s most important is the overall improvement of the production, the vocals, the music, and the technicality. Finally, I’m glad I’ve come to appreciate this excellent release over the years. The best songs are Lavrae of the Lie, Inhuman, Portal, and Insurrection.

...and here it is. Origin's true beginnings: the genesis of this pathetic genre known as technical brutal death metal. Apparently not happy with being an inoffensive deathgrind band any longer, Origin decided to take a different direction with their sophomore album: playing music that tries to be fast and relentless and fails miserably for that very reason. Their lack of ability to comprehend simple songwriting skills is astounding, and with this release, it gets even worse.

Origin's debut Origin was at least tolerable on a musical level; Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas is beyond levels of mediocrity and into actual annoyance. Origin have abandoned the groovy yet relatively heavy chugging they used on their debut, in favorite of a much more relentless but ultimately ostensibly heavy form of music. 6/8 time signatures dominate the album to a truly irritating extent, and while the band has not yet resorted to constant weedle-wank at this mark in their career, they're sinking pretty close to it here: constant tremolo guitars playing the same kind of "ominous" riff for what essentially amounts to the whole entire album. It's honest-to-god sad that the band has existed for five fucking years at this point in their existence and they still think people want to hear music that is nothing at all but constant blasting and tremoloing. Hint: they don't. I'll make it very clear once again: if your music constantly blasts and hammers on the snare with no apparent direction, it has no opportunity to release momentum. Hence, it has no groove. That's fine if you're going to play a genre like black metal or raw noise, but death metal has to have some sort of element of catchiness applied to its formula. Otherwise, you end up with something that more or less equates to this: mechanical, soulless death metal that is too annoying to even be worth a laugh. The vocalist barks out some exceptionally boring growls, but the Lord Worm influence from the self-titled release is gone: to get a mental image of the vocal performance on Informis, imagine a Swedish guy with strep throat. Even worse, the high, shrieking screams are ten times more populous this time around. Because when I think of relentless, brutal music, the first thing that comes to mind is deathcore.

Come to think of it, this Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas reminds me of that movie Speed, and it would make a very viable explanation for this shit: the band may have hypothetically had a bomb in their recording studio that would have gone off if they dropped below 180 beats per minute for more than half a second. Makes sense, when you think about it: the guitar riffs are spastic and boring because the guitarists were improvising things on the spot; the vocalist is screaming so often because he fears for his life; and the drummer was simply trying to help the other members keep tempo so they wouldn't fuck up. It doesn't explain the bland production job that Origin seems to be eternally cursed with, but it does explain the shitty musical quality of the resulting recordings.

Honestly, regardless of Howard Payne's involvement in the making of this record, it's really, really bad. It's fast and relentless for the sake of fast and relentless, when we already have bands like Torsofuck and Last Days of Humanity that do that just fine. Avoid this album in whatever manifestations it may take.

Origin can only be described as sheer madness, a band who can create a record that finds its way into your brain, takes it hostage, rapes its wife and kids, kills them, devours them, and then burns their house down on the way out. This is quite simply put, one of the most brutal albums I have ever had the pleasure of listening too.

Origin are truly a force to be reckoned with. Rarely have I initially been so floored by a bands output. What really struck me first about Origin, was the vocal assault that nearly the entire band lays down. There is the main vocalist who supplies the guttural grunts and growls, and then there are the two guitarists/bassist who scream their fucking lungs out. Scream might not really be the word, it almost sounds like a demonic screech from Hell. The relentless vocal assault never lets up, not to the point where your like “Shut up already”, but it is quite prominent and meshes very well with the music (If you get mad at the vocalist of Psycroptic for this reason, it might carry over to Origin as well). Half of the appeal of Origin to me, IS the intense vocals, it is definitely one of the aspects of the band that sets them apart from other Death Metal bands and makes them stand out.

Since they put out “Echoes Of Decimation” a few years ago, Origin became synonymous with sweeping. I feel that they sweep more on “Echoes” than they do on here, but it is definitely a major characteristic that makes up the band. With that said, the guitar work is simply awesome. It is not jaw droppingly amazing, but it is definitely noteworthy. Unfortunately, this album does not differ from almost every other metal release in that the bass is buried in the mix and you can barely, if at all, hear it. Fortunately for us, Origin smartened up and made the bass audible on their newest output “Antithesis”.

Now on to the best part of the album: the drums. John Longstreth does nothing short of one of the best drumming performances ever recorded. His drumming is complex and clean. Unlike his temporary replacement James King, Longstreth does NOT overuse blast beats. Every blast he makes has a purpose behind it, not to simply fill a void (Cough James King Cough). If one comparison is to come to mind, it is none other than the great Flo Mounier. He by no means sounds like Flo stylistically, but as far as complexity and sheer astonishment from listening goes, they are in every way on the same page.

This album is merciless in the best way possible. It does not get repetitive and you will want to hear it again and again, simply to understand what just occurred both musically, and to your senses.

Origin, for me, is one of those bands that has taken a while to get into, and even now it's hard to take seriously. While they're definitely good at what they do, they just lack that certain something to make them awesome.

Now, I do like this album. In my opinion it's better than "Echoes of Decimation". But I can't listen to it all the time. If it wasn't for the occasional interludes at the beginning of the tracks, all the songs would mold together. They all sound exactly the same. The album goes for a mere 28:32, but in my opinion, that is more than enough. While these guys can play fast, that isn’t the only prerequisite for making decent music. You have to vary your style, keep the listener guessing about what’s coming up next, make the music unpredictable. This is where the album falls. The songs are predictable. Every song is played at light speed with no room for a solo, or a decent guitar riff, or something different to be thrown in.

But, I have to say the biggest problem is the vocals. No, not because they sound terrible. In fact, they’ve got some good growling happening. It’s the amount problem. They’re everywhere! Way, way too many lyrics for these songs. The first 58 seconds of “Inhuman” is probably the only reprieve we have of the vocalists, even with the intro and the two screams. Everything else is chock-full of lyrics, spoken at such a speed that following with the lyrics in front of you is even a challenge. I know, because I’ve tried it.

However, on the plus side, the vocalists are talented. They can speak quickly while clearly saying the words. On some occasions it even becomes catchy, like on “Insurrection”, where they sing on the same rhythm as the music. Even the lyrical theme here of hatred and killing someone is good and keeps the lyrics interesting momentarily.

With that said, overall, this album is average. It’s definitely not the worst, but they just don’t rank highly in terms of uniqueness and style. I enjoy fast music, but not so fast that the tracks all sound hauntingly similar. Not to mention that if you don’t like the vocals, then forget it, as they dominate every single song without a break.

Unique, technical, well-played, extremely brutal, and ultimately, not particularly enjoyable in my estimation.

This album’s afflicted with what you might call “Relapse Records Syndrome”. You can observe an advanced case in bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, where the impulse to overthrow tradition and make a declaration of creativity has rendered their music a series of barely-related dissonant chords and references to other musical genres – attention-getting on first listen, but I have to wonder if you couldn’t program a computer to write that stuff.

Origin are not nearly at that level; this still sounds like death metal, after all, down to the vocal attack, with no cutesy digressions into other styles. Still, the songwriting here is pretty much just a matter of straddling the line between completely arbitrary chaos on one hand and having enough repetition so as not to confuse moshers too much on the other. With, say, a Deeds of Flesh album, music that appears to be completely abstract and aloof initially turns out to be subtly melodic (in their fashion) and rather emotional after listening to it enough to get my brain properly wrapped around it. This thing, on the other hand, works the other way around… it seems a little thinner and more transparent every time I hear it. Is it possible for something to be complicated without actually being complex?

Anyway, I wouldn't call this horrible, but there are currently five death metal bands for every homo sapien that has walked the earth since man first stood upright, so exercise some judgment, please.

Before I continue, I have to admit that I'm writing this review after only two listens as I make my way through my third, of this album. It has been spinning around in my CD player ever since I got it out of the shrink wrap after buying it, and I'm writing this before I have given it the all-important test of time.

So, on to the music. III opens up with Larvae of the Lie, the song that snared me into the trap that is the band Origin. The riffs in this song are absolutely amazing; the song begins with a soundbyte of what is probably the buzz of a swarm of flies, and the effect continues throughout the song even after the soundbyte is over, with the riffs. I haven't written many songs myself, but to me at least this seems like it would be incredibly difficult to do with only a guitar. Other notable tracks are Portal and Inhuman (which begins with a great clip from the movie Dogma).

There are two things that truly amaze me about this band. The biggest one is their speed. It amazes me that any human being can play guitar or drums as fast as these guys do long enough to record an album. The second comes from the first: their drummer. He is the epitome of their speed, he simply doesn't let up. There are very few sections (those of which that there are are extremely short) in which he isn't playing, and he's always playing at breakneck speeds.

Now to explain my title. Though this album is excellent and brutal in its entirety, its entirety isn't very long, clocking in at 28 minutes. I said above that I'm on my third listen, and that I've been listening to this album since I took it out of the shrink wrap; that was just over an hour ago. The quality of the music is enough to make up for it, but for some it simply will not be worth the money for just under a half hour of music.

FREAKIN' WOW!!

Dude! These guys are nuts, and I mean in an awesome way! Geez these guys can play!!! The drums are fast as hell, the guitars are riff-heavy at the speed of friggin'-light, and the vocals are sung pretty damn fast, and at a very nice death growl too. The vocals that pop up in the back are very black metalish, but they actually fit well.

Holy crap dude, this album owns my soul. Songs like "Portal" (best song on the album), "Meat For The Beast", and "Inhuman" totally pound and pound at the riffs and drums with such a fast and awesome sound, it'll blow you away! No freaking kidding, and this is pretty much for all the other songs, which is a slight problem. The songs are sort of the same thing, but they're actually pretty unique in they're own way, like "Perversion of Hate" which has a kind of black metal sound to the riffs. "Inhuman" and "Meat For The Beast" have a brief sound clip at the beginning of them, with the angel from Dogma saying "Unless you're dead or are from another plane of existance, you may do well to cover your ears!" (That was awesome!) for Inhuman, and the one for Meat For The Beast I don't know.

The lyrics are actually nicely done. Though not poetic, they fit the style of music they do very well. A lot of the songs involve suffering and death, and for death metal standards, it may seem like an unoriginal thing. WRONG!! Origin has some very "Origin"al concepts in their songs, like Perversion of Hate dealing with the 9/11 tragedy, and Portal dealing with...a portal. Well that's not all of the good lyrical goodness, but it's not like I need to go into depth with it, since for non-death inthusiasts, it'll be VERY hard to understand them. However, if you check a lyrics sight, they actually say almost all of the words perfectly, so that's a definite plus!

In conclusion, Origin is one awesome death metal band! They have great riffs, drums, lyrics, and vocals that'll boggle your mind. I mean DAMN! A lot of the things they play on here seem im-freaking-possible to play, but they do one hell of a job! If only bands like Slipknot could play like this, they'd actually be good. Great job Origin!

When I first heard Origin all I could think is "what the fuck did I just hear?" The band, much like the berzerker (but waaaaaay better) creates pure brutality with choatic and technical riffs along with some of the fastest, most mind blistering drums around. No one can deny the unchallenged of this band.
Thier latest release (which I cant even pronounce at the moment) is a step up from their debut self titled release. While still brutal, the album seems to have more of a focus and has a much better sound to it, the recording process made the bands energy more in your face. Each song on the album has a similar sound that if not listene to closely could allow the listener to think all the songs are the same, which i found to be a flaw with the band. Overall, the album is amazing for what it is and definetally holds its own. I think it might be cool if the band could add in some melodic elements, with their current speed imagine the possibilities (oooooo).

Trax worth checking out:
Larvae of the Lie
Portal

After, their descent, but pretty boring self-titled release, Origin now offers us this truly awesome disc. Back on the s/t, it was pretty clear that Origin had potential, but it simply wasen't delievered. The boys are back, and this time, their imense talent has been put to prober use. \m/

This album is totally insane, but in a good way! The whole thing just keeps going at the speed of light for 28 minutes, while somehow remaining fresh all the way through. That truly is what amazes me most about this album, it is not repetitive! The guitar and vocal work is catchy as fuck, but on all the songs manages to have a unique edge, that will keep you happy all the way through.

Did I mention that its fast? This monster is fucking fast. At normal speed, theres probably enough music for a double album here..... And John Longstretch is a fucking machine! How the hell does he keep that up? He must be a cyborg or something...... Seriously, try listening to "Portal", I bet Slipknot could NEARLY pull that off if they cordinated their THREE drummers proberly......

Well, the guitar ain't exactly sloppy either, its (like already said)...... Fast..... That really is the best word for it..... Really fucking fast.... Oh yeah, and the riffs kicks ass too! So that leaves us with the vocals, pretty standard br00tality here I guess. James Lee, while good, really ain't much better than most other br00tal growlers. What really shines about the vocals though, is the almost constant use of higher pitched background growling, heck, them backing vocals could've easily made a black metal album. Anyway, this use of the cool backing vocals make III a much more interesting listen.

The message should be pretty clear by now. If you haven't heard this br00tal experience of awesomness, I strongly recommend that you get going now!

Well, i got to say, that this is one of the most talented and brutal death metal bands that has came out in the last 4 or 5 years. i think the multi- vocalist are a new touch to the scene. Even though this cd is tremendously short, i think that it shows so much pure talent. James Lee has a great voice, and it sounds like he's puking up his lungs, simply great stuff. The druming on this album is exellent, John Longstreth is like a human beat machine who is programed to stomp the hell out of the double bass and blast the hell out of the drums for 29 minutes strait. The guitar playing of both Jeremy Turner and Paul Ryan is both fast and pretty clean, but theres really nothing to much to write home about.

Onto the songs...... The cd starts out with a pretty cool insect sound and it blasts right in to "Larvae of the lie" which is a decent song with a good fast pace and some pretty impressive mixes of vocals, such as a black metal screech with a brutal death metal growl. Every song on this album has that mix because of the multi- vocalists. The next song "Inhuman" starts off with a cool clip, i'm not sure where its from, but none the less its pretty awsome. After the clip, the song bangs along at super fast speed and the lyrics are well done. All in all, i can sit here and tell you about every single song but they are all just so brutal and fast that i think i would keep on repeating my self. So in conclusion, this is extremly fast and brutal death metal cd, and a true death metal fan should be very eager to buy this cd.

The best tracks on Origin's "Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas" are:
Larvae of the lie, Inhuman, and Meat for the Beast

A new deffinition, for a modern age in brutality. Execellence is apparent from the begining. With tempos pushing 260 beats per minute, "Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas" displays a type of intensity very few acts can put together with this kind of professionalisim. Drummer, John Longstreth (ex-ANGEL CORPSE) adds a bombastic assult with complete percision and control of tempo and signature, although i think the kick drum recording could of been taimed a bit. The guitars are ferocious, tasteful harmonies, and intense 16th note picking. Paul Ryan and Jeremey Turner put to gether a blistering tornado of riffs that inspires the senses. This cd is topped off with the amazing vocals of James Lee. The lyrics are dark and have meaning, well written, with killer schemes. The package is very professional, killer artwork from Chad Michael Ward. And a huge production thanks to Colin Davis and Chris Djurcic. To me ORIGIN has spewed fourth one of my favorite records of 2002, right up there with the new HATE ETERNAL.

Quite simply, the new Origin record is some of the fastest death metal I have heard in a while. It has a sort of “Reign in Blood” feeling to it: blisteringly fast songs played one after another with no filler. The songs are more memorable than on the last album and new vocalist James Lee is much better than their old frontman, due to Lee’s ability to properly enunciate words, a skill the previous leader needed some help with. This album clocks in at just 28:32; nine tracks of blazing drums, guitar riffs, and low vocals with some of the best backups in metal. I can tell that Origin has definitely matured as a songwriting entity since their last record; the songs on this one are more distinct from their debut. My one complaint about this record is that it's nothing new. They are great technical musicians but as a whole, they don't really do anything that I haven't heard before. So in summary, “Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas” is a furious portion of death metal which represents an extreme of its genre without really bringing anything new to the scene.

Death metal. The genre has been done almost exactly the same way by so many bands that it is hard for most people not to laugh at it for the immeasurable, but perhaps also unintentional, self-parody that seems to pour into the ever growing vaults of 'gore-soaked brutality'. Nile and Cryptopsy are two bands constantly name-dropped for adding a different dimension to the formula (and rightly so in my opinion), and their ranks should most probably be joined by Origin. Described by their label, Relapse, as aggro-tech death metal, this is some of the fastest punishment my ears have received.
If most death bands method of killing you is to give the impression of detonating a 10 ton bomb, Origin would instead point a mini-gun at your face and pull the trigger till it goes click.
John Longstreth (of Angel Corpse fame) puts the 6 million dollar man to shame, I don't understand how somebody can be so fast and hit so many drums at the same time, and he's still only 24 for christ's sake.
The three vocalists make the songs much more interesting to listen to, even I have bothered reading the lyrics, of which there are quite a lot, and they don't drive down the same old road of 'Fucked With A Knife' type women hating.
The guitar playing is very precise and also blindingly fast, and the band cope with the tempo changes (which must happen between 220 and 300 bpm) perfectly, I don't think they could be tighter.
The album is just about longer than 28 minutes, but has probably got as many riffs and changes as Metallica's '..And Justice For All', such is the unmatched speed of the band.
On the first few listens I found the album almost totally unmemorable because there is so much happening (and I can normally listen to most death albums and pick up most of the riffs at least on the way).
I only have a single track from the original Origin album (Disease Called Man), and would say that there isn't much digression from the style of that song, except that it's faster and the band seem more competent at constantly beating the life out of their instruments.
Another thing I really appreciated about this album is that they haven't overly detuned the instruments and hidden all the melody behind totally overdriven, distortion, so you can actually hear what they are playing.
Buy now, and suffer the consequences.....