Denouncing the Flesh

This is an interesting combination that I don't think I've heard before: 'None So Vile'-era Cryptopsy meets United Guttural-style modern brutal death metal making for something extremely intense but with a lot of subtlety, musical skill, and clever melodic work backing it up. This is an album with a great deal more going on in it than the usual brutal death metal album, despite how the style typically does its best to suggest that there's much more happening at any given moment than there really is. Infliction actually has a good level of creativity and variation in their music, which immediately makes this album more worth seeking out than about 90% of the other stuff in the brutal death scene in that it actually has the capability to impress those who don't have worn-out Deeds Of Flesh hoodies somewhere in their closet.

To be fair, at first glance this music seems a little bit incoherent; there's Levasseur style neoclassical solos, very high and dry cricket vocals, the occasional pseudo-slam, and a lot of blasting and grinding passages. The band doesn't do a lot to make the transfers between these varied sounds extremely natural; a perfunctory fill is generally the only warning a listener gets before the band decides to do something completely different. After a while though, you start to get the flow of this music a little more and realize that it's actually very carefully structured. Closer listening reveals a band that's put a lot of time and attention to allowing the song structures to be understood only by those who are willing to really make their ears work on thinking up what will happen next, but in nearly all cases it will make sense if you're paying attention. The majority of this music is California-style brutal death metal with a technical edge in the form of sweep riffs and complex tremolo and drumwork, but the heavy influence from earlier Cryptopsy helps make this material substantially more 'musical' than brutal death typically is, and overall this ends up feeling more heavily influenced by oldschool death metal than a lot of these bands are. The extra melodic and groovy moments are a solid reprieve from the blast and tech riff-dominated musical landscape, and allows the listener some breathing room before the chaos locks back in.

This isn't particularly atmospheric music, but its high level of variation and riffing peculiarities help establish a unique stylistic tone which ends up bleeding over into the more conventional material. The willingness to not go through rote tremolo over blast beats all the time and occasionally break down into something other than conventional grooves indicates a band with a bit more willingness to think outside the box than you typically see. The California style of brutal death has never usually been my thing, but Infliction pulls it off with an inherent musicality and logical structuring that makes it a more pleasing listen than a lot of their contemporaries, and because of that, would probably appeal to a lot of people who aren't as into straight-up brutal death without these sorts of diversions into melodic and more oldschool territory. It can certainly appeal to a lot of people despite the initial chaos.

I wouldn't say that this is a particularly spectacular album in the brutal death field, but the fact that it has such cross-stylistic appeal makes it more worthy of investigation than most. Even those well-versed in the brutal death scene will find some elements to enjoy and study, be it the mesh of various death metal styles or the unique melodic passages; there's really something of everyone. This is a solid album that's worth a look from those who can stomach blast beats and growls; give it a try.

Fans of Devourment,Internal Suffering and Gorgasm will love this. The music is intense and pummeling as hell with whirlwind guitars switching off constantly. The faster parts remind me of a mix between Deeds Of Flesh and Dying Fetus with the "Slam Dance" inducing breakdowns that that all the bands from Texas seem to do these days. I love the Brutality and raw(but clear) production of the music but I think they would be better with a lower guttural vocalist, he sounds like a 5 year old Ruben Rosas and is not very convincing. The vocals are usually the John Gallagher sounding "Barking Dog" vocals of Dying Fetus but no where near as good as the Aforementioned. Even with the slightly annoying vocals it still doesnt seem to take away from the music which is in every way fucking killer. Maybe instead of Devourment having 2 vocalists with the same style(Dumb Idea) Wayne or Ruben could leave and join Infliction.....then I would probbably give them 100% instead of 85%