Killing Christ

Howdy! Today, I bring forth a mighty little EP by Infestdead. For those who don’t know who this band is, it’s basically the billionth Dan Swano project. Infestdead plays some incredibly catchy, aggressive, Floridian-style death metal that reeks of Deicide influence all throughout it’s rather short 11 minute playing time.

After the mandatory “atmospheric” intro track that all death metal releases need, we’re presented with the first true song, ‘I’ll Be Black,’ which succinctly demonstrates Infestdead’s style. These riffs have that thrashy Florida sound that we all love, and they’re executed with great precision on this EP. They’re simple and effective, which is the main driving force in Infestdead’s music.

Oddly enough, this is a vocally-driven dead metal release, which is quite rare. Besides the obvious Deicide-like harmonized harsh vocal approach, these songs are very “chorus oriented,” with the contrast between verses and choruses serving to further emphasize the words being uttered. In fact, the vocals here are articulated quite well, which furthers the effectiveness of the hooks present on this EP. This is brain-numbing, knuckle-dragging death metal that just happens to be quite palatable. Considering how well-produced and catchy this is, I’m surprised that it isn’t more popular. Songs like ‘Burn Me (Without the Grace of God)’ are just such catchy tunes that pretty much any fan of death metal could dig it.

The drums here are programmed, which make this feel even more mechanical that it already does with the precise riffs. Honestly, all this EP is here to do is pummel you to the ground while making you remember it, so to that end, I honestly don’t mind the programmed drums. Plus, they’re not obnoxiously fake or anything, so it’s all good. Plus, the drumming is just very simple blastbeats or the double bass norm, which is again fine in my book.

With the Killing Christ EP, Infestdead do absolutely nothing original. However, this is such a faithful, lively, and anthemic slab of death metal that perfectly emulates the Floridian style and sound. Deicide comparisons are bound to be rampant when discussing this EP, but at least it’s being compared to the good Deicide, not the shit one that put out a crappy album this year. If you want something catchy, pounding, brutal, and fun as hell, then check this out.

Written for http://thenumberoftheblog.com/

Infestedead is the umpteenth Dan Swano band. This time, he decided to let all the anger and violence flow through this project, being a pure death metal one. The first output we had from this band was this EP, Killing Christ. Since the title, we can perceive a quite strong attack to Christianity and the music itself reflects this conception. Six tracks for more or less 11 minutes of blasting metal are enough to let us understand the burden of anger of Dan.

We begin this effort with “The Rising”, a dark intro that prepares us for the explosion of “I’ll be Black”. The up tempo is immediately present, as the production already shows us signs of resemblance to Deicide. As we go on, several influences come from the Glenn Benton’s band: the guitar tone, the way the drums are played, the growl and the use of a second voice, a more screamed one to support that growl. The production is quite sharp and quite good to exalt all the instruments here, conserving a bit of rawness. The sounds are not explosive but always quite “pure” and direct. “In The Spell of Satan” shows more impulsive blast beats to continue through schizophrenic riffs and vicious tempo changes.

The drums, even if they are programmed, they are not annoying and they conserve a good, natural sound. Coming back to the tracks, we can also notice a good use of the lead lines to give the right atmosphere for the furious restarts, with whistles and so on. Few sections are doomy and truly rotten as we proceed with “Save me from the Hands of Christ” and its gloomy progression. Here the Deicide influences are even far more evident, especially during the fast bass drums sections. The restarts are full of angry, impulsive guitar solos in tremolo style. “Fuck by Satan” is a 40 second blast and nothing more, with the refrain in an evident position. The final “Bun Me (Without the Grace of God)” has a really catchy refrain with few blast beats restarts and a good bass drums work for all the length.

All things considered, this a small gem in the underground by a polyhedric musician. This Killing Christ is recommended to the death metal fans with a special preference for Deicide. A good EP!

Allow me to start by saying that Infestdead were probably one of the best things to ever happen to this genre. On a more depressing note, almost no one even knows who they are. Sure, there are countless bands out there that have played this style of ultra-brutal satanic Death Metal, but not one of them has come even close to being as consistently devastating and spot-on as this band.

Infestdead's music revolves around catchy sing-song hooks and grooves, melded with punishing riffs and blastbeats. And to top it all off, the Floyd Rose shredding leads. These same riffs, although somewhat simple for the most part, are delivered with a mechanical precision perfectly in time. Thus, they seem to have a very technical sound upon first listen. I really can't believe how tight this band is, honestly... It's almost criminal to play your instrument this well.

This first song on this EP is "I'll Be Black", an ode to Lucifer's human manfiest upon judgement day, or something like that, I guess. The lyrics aren't really the reason I listen to this band. I'll Be Black starts off with an immediately headbangable "chuggachuggachugga" riff, backed by a timely Thrash. The chorus employs more use of the aforementioned "chug" along with blasts and a dual vocal approach not unlike Masse Broberg on "Osculum Obscenum" or "Penetralia" (Broberg's accented rasp could certainly be called derivative as well, but these two bands have enough in common to warrant a comparison).

The next, "In The Spell Of Satan", is a complete balls to the wall blastfest that opens with a ripping lead and goes down the path of Morbid Angel's "Altars Of Madness". It then slows the pace a bit and lets you up for air with a nicely arranged break. Without a moment's notice, Infestdead transform into Suffocation and execute some NYDM via Sweden.

As you can already see, this is an incredibly diverse Death Metal EP, with a whole lot of bang for your eBay buck. I say "eBay" because, sadly...That's really the only place you can find this album, short of going to Dan Swano's house and taking it directly from his CD shelf. The goal of this review is to make you want to hear this great, great disc. So instead of spoiling the element of surprise and giving you a complete track by track rundown.... I'll end it here. In closing, I will say one thing. I LOVE this band and everything they have done, so I am a bit biased. But it was not something that had to be given time to "grow on" Infestdead were INSTANT for me. I heard the first few seconds of their "Hellfuck" album (to be reviewed later) and promptly found myself a copy without even a full listen.

I've never banged my head so much as I have within the 11:27 span of this record. BUY NOW