Quick, name two acts that are on other sides of the globe (but closer than you'd think), both use a drum machine, both play brutal slam, and are both run by one man. And both sent us promo CDs to review. Stumped? Check the subject line; Infinite Defilement is a single-person venture from Australia, and Human Effluence is a new TXDM project from, well, America's Heartland. In this issue of S-M, I'll be letting our readers, and the guys in these projects, know what I think of these discs. Onwards!
Jacob of Melbourne, Australia's Infinite Defilement is a new project playing
Insidious Decrepancy-sounding brutal death metal with steadily written, partially-melodic tremolo riffs in an NYDM/TXDM hybrid style. The vocals are a semi-standard guttural expulsion, and a tad loud. In fact, I'd say they drown out the excellently written music a bit of the time. Regardless, the first track begins with a developing intro riff leading into a very
Morpheus Descends style tremolo pattern, with straightforward drumming. As the aforementioned
Insidious Decrepancy sounds like a major influence on Jacob, the music develops in a linear yet parallel fashion; there are obvious continuations of riffs, and then beside them, new sections will develop with blasting, shifting rhythms. I have to compliment the drum programming here, as it is pretty solid. The cymbals aren't as good as Shawn/Insidious Decrepancy's samples, but still, this is a commendable job. The dark, brooding breakdown riff in the first track highlights a major positive about Infinite Defilement; his riffcraft is pretty spectacular, as the slam breakdown also attests to. Sadly, I'm not hearing much of an interesting bass presence, and I think this could be fixed by adding cooler basslines on new releases by Infinite Defilement (he'll have a new full-length out at the beginning of the coming year, apparently!). The second song is more of the same, as is the rest of this 4-track, 17 minute slaughterfest, but it's GOOD. The songs are all around 4 minutes; they all develop in a similar way, with themes being created, disintegrated, and returned to eventually, culminating in big meaty slam breakdowns with the rhythm and groove you love, and the sophistication you may or may not desire. This is very high quality stuff, and it's just going further to show that one-man brutal death bands aren't jokes...they're a powerful force to be reckoned with. Keep your eyes on Jacob; he's creating a monster.
This brings us to Human Effluence, a project by one Chris Dearing of Texas. His project may be similar in composure (one guy, drum programming, brutal death) to ID, but it's a whole other beast. Noisy and chaotic as all get-out, blasting straight through the gates after a hideously generic zombie sample (I can forgive this here and there, whatever). Sometimes, this can get a bit goregrind-y with really guttural vocals (NO EFFECTS, as his Myspace states!) and blasting, nonsensical riff structures, but when he decides to elucidate and develop riffs, the quality is obvious. There's a bit of wanky tech flourishing, which is fine in the context here, as it is rather buried and not as showy, making it not annoying but rather fluid; A+ on incorporation of that style here for sure. The third song is pretty ridiculous, it starts with good slams, and becomes a noisy mess with some over-the-top drum programming, but slows down to a good groove eventually, getting fans of
Devourment and
Cannibal Corpse alike moshing and headbanging. A bludgeoning slam riff breakdown lodges itself firmly in the brain of the listener, perhaps a bit too much as it's repeated a little long, but the songs keep charging forwards after this, with
Atrocious Abnormality and
Aversion to Life-style aplomb, all riffing and blasting and gurgling, with varied changeups and headache-inducing rampage sections. I gotta hand it to Chris, he is talented at creating oppressive brutal death metal in a more-calculated
Disgorge (Mex) style, but there's very little memorability to be found. Despite this, if you like your brutal death metal LOUD, boisterous and chaotic, I'm going to wholeheartedly recommend this one.
Check the links here for these guys' Myspaces...buy their stuff and support the scene. And of course, watch out for their new releases; one-man bands aren't just for crazy guys with accordions and knee-cymbals and shit anymore.
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