Inside the Unreal

Amongst the massive wave of heavily influential death metal acts of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s came some that held just as much merit but got far less attention over the years. Electrocution is one of these bands. Based out of Italy, they only dropped one record in 1993 titled Inside The Unreal (before more recently reforming), along with several demos that can also be found on disc two of the recent reissue of this beast. Riding heavily on the technical rails, as well as hitting some jazz fusion, picture something along the lines of Unquestionable Presence meets Beneath The Remains.

Abundant standout features are going to creep in more and more as you give this repeat listens. Ascending riff repetition is used wonderfully, especially with how it mixes in so smoothly beside the more traditional death metal rhythm patterns. For the most part, the vocals avoid taking the forefront, glazing as a nice topping from the back seat to give the guitars the most focus. Some may view that as a disadvantage, but I personally like it, especially since it is still a noticeable factor.

Technical death perfection is found in “Rising Of Infection,” potentially one of my favorite songs of this style, ever. Not only are the rhythms bouncy with jarring riff/drum combos, but the shifting in sound and direction is pulled off smooth as butter. The bass/lead section dropping after an immediate break is next level. Others hone in on the speed factors, queuing in that Brazilian death/thrash influence. “Back To The Leprosy Death” tackles this wonderfully, while also working in advanced drumming and leads. Acoustic chunks and cleaner parts can be found to cool off the otherwise hot surface, shown best in “Ghost Of Past.” It’s toned-down, calming midsection is wonderful.

Really, Inside The Unreal should appeal to anybody who digs any kind of early technical death metal that isn’t stupidly noodly, and isn’t so produced it feels inorganic. The execution of everything they go for is sharp. The bonus disc on the recent reissue is loads of fun, and certain areas of the demos capitalize even more on the aforementioned jazz-fusion. Anyone who digs this style but hasn’t dug this one up yet needs to do so as soon as possible.

Originally written for Sleeping Village

This is another one of those fantastic albums musically that was marred by a weak production. If this album had production like Carcass's Heartwork, or Deicide's Once upon the Cross it would definitely be one of the greatest death metal albums of all time. Electrocution is an extremely underrated band from Italy that unfortunately only put out two full length albums this one and their very generic Metaphysincarnation. This album is about 65 percent death metal and 35 percent thrash metal music wise. Now Italy wasn't a hotbed for death metal in the early days when compared to the likes of USA, Sweden, and the UK they really only had Sadist for a household death metal name. Now Italy's death metal scene has grown substantially housing big name bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hour of Penance, and big name symphonic metal band Opera IX.

The vocals are some of the most unique I've ever heard. Alex (vocalist) sounds like a tortured soul. He doesn't sound like a typical growler in that the voice is very guttural and demonic sounding. He sounds more like a tortured soul growling with pain rather than a prideful one (which is a sin in the bible) which Deicide, Morbid Angel sound like or their brutal counterparts of Suffocation/Incantation. Lyrically he's almost undecipherable. He does have some great lines in the opening track Premature Burial:

"the flow got me arrest for hell
burial was I
human pull to no man
certain death nightmare
burial of no land
burial of satan"

Reading these lyrics and considering the tracks of the songs on the album the tortured soul growling and writhing in pain sums up the sound he effectively gives off in his vocals.

Guitars are easily the best part of the album. Not many people listen to death metal for the lyrical depth or vocals. They listen to death metal for the riffs and brutality. While this is not overwhelmingly brutal like many modern Italian bands. This is more musical and easier to digest. The guitars on this album play riffs based from thrash metal, while being more down tuned. The riffs here are very fast and technical as well as memorable (retaining the thrash feel). The riffs utilize a lot of tremolo picking, as well as the palm muted classic stop and go phrases which dominate all our favorite thrash recordings and the guitars played here utilize the chromatic scale that emphasizes the diminished and augmented intervals. The guitar riffs are also very unpredictable always keeping an element of surprise because of the rhythmic changes in the music. Three-Fourths into a bar the rhythm suddenly changes in time signature after only a couple of measures often. The solos implement a lot of shredding that involve rapid playing of chromatic and minor scales. Although the solos are better on Metaphysincarnation, the riffs here are stronger; I will take stronger riffs which dominate 85 percent of the music rather than generic riffs and amazing solos any day of the week.

The bass here is very audible which is a major plus. The bassist will all of a sudden get his own bass solo break in the most unexpected time where the music will change rhythm and he'll throw in a jazz style improvisation which the rest of the band doesn't go out of sync at all. He also sometimes plays over the guitar riffs with his own unique melody instead of just following the guitar which gives the music a sound of having two separate melodies at the same time, sort of how Bach would use counterpoint in his fugues to create separate melodies within the same measures of music that made it sound like two different melodies are interacting with each other in the same measure.

The drums here are some of the tightest and most technical I've heard. Yes, the drummer doesn't blast every 2 seconds and doesn't abuse the double bass. The reason I say he is so technical is because of how precise he is even with all the rhythmic changes happening in the music. For example in the fourth track "Growing into the Flesh" he'll use the double bass for parts of a measure, stop, use it again, stop and then throw in all these fills with all these changes going on. It's very impressive and he never misses a beat, he is always on point. He will also throw in blast beats at random times which are incredibly precise.

In conclusion, the music here is incredibly complex and surprising. Every time you listen to this record you will discover something new you've never heard before ex. a riff you didn't catch, a drum pattern that will catch you off guard, or a bass fill that you missed. This album to grasp all the inner workings and details must be listened to multiple times and even then you won't fully grasp it. The guitar riffs are primarily thrash based while the vocals and drums are undeniably death metal. Even though the production does kind of lower the albums score in my opinion the music is so strong that it is a good album simply on the strong musical output. The production problems lie in the clicky double bass sound, the very muffled guitar playing which makes some riffs hard to hear, and overpowering vocals (vocals were mixed too loud). Best tracks in my opinion are the blazing fast Premature Burial, Growing into the Flesh, Body's Decay, Ghost of Past, Under the Wings Only Remains, and Bells of the End.

"Inside the Unreal" spawned, coiled, and vanished similar to that of a typical death metal shadow of its time. Electrocution, authors of the aforementioned effort, were an Italian squad that replicated bands like Death in their heyday and supposedly shifted into progressive/technical death metal territory ala Cynic or Atheist before permanently showing the beast the door. Electrocution never reformed or made an attempt to familiarize the world with their assault, but some folks found "Inside the Unreal" and gave it a cool re-release in celebration of its two decades of dormant dominance. Electrocution's style could accurately sneak into the quarters of Death, Morbid Angel, and other Florida-based death metal factions of the early 1990s based on the musical fulcrum within the suppressed consciousness of "Inside the Unreal," and to call the release a bestial onslaught would grossly underestimate the unrelenting complexities of Electrocution's pedigree.

I guess if you want a specific description of "Inside the Unreal," refresh yourself in Death, Malevolent Creation, Sepultura, maybe a little Possessed or Morbid Angel for good measure. Lots of thrashy death metal here, filled with all the primitive growls, insanely brutal percussion, smoldering guitar work, and unrelenting force constantly burning through the Earth. The riffs are all caught in the same foundation of style and structure, but the sheer might coming from each chop just makes me want to slam my head into a wall; this is crisp, shearing, toxic death metal. No frills, no gimmicks. The overall sound is frantic and punishing, and there's no doubt that these dudes were firing on all cylinders during the writing and recording of this album based on the sheer energy oozing through Electrocution's performance.

That's probably the finest quality of the album not including the astonishing instrumentation; the amount of dark animation coursing through the record's blood is an unmatched accomplishment. My favorite song from the whole affair happens to be "Ghost of the Past," which just explodes into a fleshy feat of pure meat and gore; like the remaining effort, it slays without mercy. Oh yea, the sound quality is also unbelievably incredible, especially the tones they acquired for the guitar solos. It's raw, fierce, honest, and a true testament of fantastic death metal shoved into its filthy hole of a residence. In essence, "Inside the Unreal" is old-school death metal in every way, and only a clown would consider it weak or too primitive.

Thanks to the work of legitimate record labels and informed metalheads, buried artifacts like "Inside the Unreal" are awakened from their timeless slumber, ready to feast and maul on fools that dare investigate the hidden chambers of death metal's forgotten creed. You may not find Electrocution compelling compared to Death and pals, but the stylized violence within the band's first and last album strikes just as hard as the aforementioned faction, and there's not a single trace of pedestrian songwriting or instrumentation hiding inside the mystery of this record. I thoroughly enjoyed the aged scriptures of Electrocution, and it just goes to show that classics and gems still lurk beneath the mortal soil of time. Thankfully some folks love exhuming the deceased, and for that we should all give them our eternal praises and high-fives.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

In short, Electrocution is an obscure Italian death metal band that sounds like they were right in the middle of the Floridian scene, with a definitive Morbid Angel edge to their sound, albeit with more technicality that gives it an identity of its own. Sounds good, right?

The opener here is ‘Premature Burial,’ and after a the soft intro, it immediately lets you know what’s going to happen for the next 35 minutes of your life. What we have here is blistering death metal with technicality and some thrash influence. While the transitions here are quite nifty and better than Morbid Angel on more than a few occasions, the solo here does reek of something straight from Altars of Madness. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not.

‘Rising of Infection’ shows off more of Electroctuion’s technical side, and holy hell, it’s really fun to listen to! This feels more like Atheist mixed with Morbid Angel, so at least we get to see that Electroction can draw from all aspects of the Morbid Angel sound. This blend is actually really refreshing to hear, and I absolutely love how these influences were merged together.

‘Ghost of Past’ is the longest song here, clocking in at 5:40, and it’s an interesting tune. It transitions from slow to fast with ease, and the riffs are all pretty damn catchy to boot. Here, we can hear everything from a doomier riff, to your staple chugging death metal riff, to (dare I say) a staccato-ish breakdown riff. The breakdown riff isn’t offensive, and it actually works within the context of the song, especially as a transition into the next segment, so I dig it. After some slick solo-work, the song eventually reaches its end, but I rather liked it.

Overall, this album is Floridian at heart, taking most of its influence from Morbid Angel. However, the bass sound and technicality definitively have that Atheist flair, yet sound distinctly different from Atheist. In that sense, Electrocution have a sound that is, at least to some extent, their own. This is an album filled with very solid riffs and well composed songs that any casual fan of the Floridian sound is pretty much guaranteed to enjoy, and as someone who loves the Floridian sound, I can’t help but recommend this obscure gem to everyone, because it’s downright great.

At the same time, sometimes the influences are a bit too obvious, and that does detract from the overall quality of the album. Thus, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone new to Floridian death metal, as it’d be better for them to hear the classic material that this borrows from first. That would help them understand the context that Inside the Unreal falls into in the realm of death metal.

Written for http://thenumberoftheblog.com/

For a more concise (read: better) summation on how a regional location relative to a genre boon/bust can make or break a band, read Falconsbane's review of the similarly overlooked album, Vast, by Disaffected. The concept still needs to reiterated, however. Out of every region in the world with a consistent release of metal, the Mediterranean is among the most (if not *the* most) unrecognized in the world. The only area that comes close is Latin America, and they at least have their champions in The Chasm. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and the like have all produced wonderful death metal releases, and, with the exception of Greek black metal, all of them have gone by the wayside in favor of their paler brethren to the north. Why this is confounds me, as bands such as Electrocution, Disaffected, and Necrophiliac have more than established the Mediterranean's prowess with death releases, but I digress...

Inside the Unreal is the first, and, like most tragically overlooked bands, only release of the band Electrocution. The history of the band is not unique: Good band gets signed to po-dunk record label, then summarily dies an obscure death after squeezing out one release. Upon listening to the album, however, one will weep tears of blood at seeing such talent see only one release proper. Coming in at just over 37 minutes with 10 tracks, Inside the Unreal walks the line between appreciative length and creative brevity flawlessly. Even though every track comes in at around three-and-a-half minutes each, you'll swear the little more than half hour you'll spend listening to each one will melt by. Though their profile lists them as straight death, the sound here is best described as deaththrash of the ballsiest kind. This album is a GUT CRUNCHER from start to finish. With the thrash frenzy kick-starting Premature Burial to the testicle liquefying shred and drum roll-off ending Bells of the End and all the solos in-between, if you're in any way a deaththrash fan you'll walk away with a salivating mouth and boxer shorts leaking clear stuff. The 'death' is layered on thick and heavy, as every fan knows it should be, and never once strays in its intensity.

There really is not enough that can be said for this album; it's a raw diamond in the sand just BEGGING to be seen, but, alas, because the band it stems from was cursed from belonging to a nation with Latin language roots, such is the fate of Inside the Unreal, a fantastic album no matter who discovers it or not.

Whole-heartedly recommended.