Epileptic

Belgian band In-Quest were a pretty mutating entity, at least during their first decade (they did go on for 19 years in all). At first they were technical and had some rather weird excursions, before stomping into groovy death metal territory. But they always were about heaviness, too.

Once upon the time I owned their debut album, but it was too tough a nut for me to crack in the late 1990s. Anyway, two decades later I wanted to give the guys another try as my musical interests had widened so much. So, I managed to grab their third album 'Epileptic', which is nicely packaged with a booklet with metallic shiny logo and contains some futuristic song titles. I'm a sci-fi freak and so, I was sold.

Within six years after the debut album, the band had changed quite a lot. Gone were underground-style production values, and the sound is as shiny as the logo on the cover. It got rather machiney, which suits the band's new, more sci-fi look. While the triggered booming drums are hefty, they sound something between human and machine. Synthesized tapestry, from electronic sounds to pseudo-choir, fit in. The lyrics are filled with words such as "mainframe", "programmed", "encryptions"... Hmmm, pretty ADP, that. Well, I'd consent with cyberpunk, then!

The beats are fluctuating a lot, with heavy and pulsating power chords, with occasion lead guitar tapping, giving it all a Meshuggah-ish vibe. There are straighter parts to level this ending up being too jumpy, epileptic stuff. The rhythm guitars sound brawny and thick, and during faster riffing it gets really fucking violent. Guitar melodies and solos are fine ('Reverbating...' highly reminds of In Flames) and skillfully done; sometimes very neat and memorable, the other times weird and quirky, and often with different sounds. It can get very grooving every now and then, pretty Mnemic-esque. Yet there's a constant aura of dystopia in all this. The drumming is not only heavy-hitting, but also very imaginative at times; still, there are loads of straight drumming bits, of which double kick drum work is always invigorating. After all, In-Quest managed to sound characteristic enough, probably due to compositions being quite progressive for a big part. The songs aren't exactly similar to each other, so it offers new discoveries for quite some time. 'In for the Kill' is a Pro-Pain cover, and fits in okay; it's been futurized a bit, but is way straighter piece.

Previous EP, 'Destination : Pyroclasm' (2003), presented a new vocalist: Sven de Caluwe of Aborted fame. He growls, screams, shouts and what not with beary force. There can be two voices at the same time, but it adds and does not cause degradation in the vocals department. A lot of the lyrics deal with social corrosion, and of course there's something about warring, too. Here's one gem:

"I am not you god
I am not your nemesis
I am worse than the above
I am a conscious man..."

Progressive and groovy, In-Quest's third album was quite different to earlier more raw take on death metal. This is no nu-metal type sidestep, but a brutal attack on senses. Let these "neurotic encryptions pass through the synapse" and be "delightfully deranged".