Insect Inside is not technically a new band, but listening to the few released singles from this album a couple weeks ago before it dropped had me looking into them in order to do research for this review. Evidently, they put out a one-song demo back in 2017 and, listening to it compared to this debut, it's clear they've come quite a long way. The First Shining of New Genus is a pretty excellent first official effort by this trio of Russian slamophiles.
The album begins with a sample and atmosphere that will sound familiar to anyone who has heard the aforementioned first demo of this band, as it is the same "tortured dude screaming" sample from the end of that track. It's evocative enough, but it's obviously not until "Sickening Ground" when the true feast begins; this album wastes no time announcing its intentions with an overture of darkly-melodic chords that quickly deviate to a very satisfying groovy slam section that feels predatory and engaging. The first thing that stands out to me here is the fantastic production, which details some surprisingly-excellent bass playing and which highlights each slam with a foundational clarity that I really appreciate. Some thuggish slams and punctuated ride cymbal usage begin "Posthumous Grief," a track featuring some contributed vocals by Kevin Muller (ex-Pyrexia, currently in The Merciless Concept) that feel like they elevate this to an early album highlight. This is also the longest track, and it contains a serpentine, winding structure that even features somewhat of a "slamdown" section that is tastefully put into play.
I really enjoy the combination of clever grooves, slightly-deviated slam phrasings, and tasteful time-signature switches this band plays with on this album. Seems like Insect Inside's greatest strengths lie in their ability to switch from "tech slam" to a very lowbrow, Soils of Fate-esque primal sound at the drop of a hat. Almost every track has some form of fun breakdown or blast-slam-to-catchy-riff transition, which leads to the album having pretty-high replayability. The title track, for example, has a very straightforward, charging section of chunky riffs right in the middle that dexterously oscillate between being underscored by blastbeats and being driven by quick fills and normative grooves. This is one of those albums that brings in a lot of different ideas in each track and never really focuses too heavily on any one idea for too long. Sometimes, albums that focus on tons of individual ideas don't really come across as cohesive, but The First Shining of New Genus succeeds where many have failed because the glue that holds it together is very strong songwriting in spite of these quick changes in direction.
Vocals here are not fantastic, though, I will say, and I think one of my only misgivings here lie in how plain and unenthusiastic the vocalist's performance is. Most of what he does is quite monotonous, though every now and then, he'll descend to an extremely-guttural gurgle that I think does at least something to bring a bit of variation into the picture. That said, the vocals, even during the lower sections, sound very dry and almost cut into the slams in a way that feels a bit unfortunate. A touch of reverb or some equalization to get them integrated into the mix more would probably be a good call, but I realize this is probably nit-picking.
The second track with guest vocals is also superb, and it features Kirill of Disfigurement of Flesh (who share a drummer with this band... said drummer was also the founder of Insect Inside, just for the record) with some very solid vociferations. The breakdown at about 2:41 is one of my favorite slams in recent memory, so that definitely counts for something, and the next few tracks keep up a very high level of quality and seem to highlight the bass playing to a greater extent than the first half or so. It was a pleasure to hear Roman (of Abnormity fame) provide some solid vocals to the final track, as well. Man, Abnormity kicked ass; they're probably never coming back but bands like this are doing some killer work in their stead when it comes to Russian slam. I look forward to following the future of Insect Inside, and I'm glad Gore House Productions put this out... as I mentioned in the Infected Humans review from last week, this label seems like one to continuously watch out for, as they seem to have a good eye for upcoming talent. This is where I sign off and continue to listen to this solid-as-fuck disc on repeat... see ya next time, devotees!
Insect Inside - The First Shining of New Genus (official direct Bandcamp link)
Gore House Productions (official website)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment