This is one of the few relentless blastbeat albums I've encountered that's really going to leave a mark. Most bands going for polished hyper-speed leave me feeling a little detached, whether they lean black or death. Infernal War play about as fast as humanly possible most of the time, but they also make room for ugly mid-paced rock and vintage thrash breakdowns. At any speed though, the riffs are seriously catchy. They tend to be simple and Marduk-ish, but with little pauses and hooks that make them rhythmically exciting on the same gut level as classic Slayer. The spirit of real metal seems to move within the bulk of frenetic distortion, the drums don't sound too terribly fake, and the guitar solos are surprisingly polished.
That about sums up why I find this album so addictive, but it would be remiss not to mention the vocals. Compared to the studied demon-impressions of someone like Mortuus, vocalist Herr Warcrimer often just sounds like an angry yelling guy. His humanity adds blood to the machine, and in contrast to all the blackmetal smartypantses indecipherably growling their postgrad thesis research, it's kind of nice that he's not always yelling very esoteric things. "No paradise is coming, you better get it straight!" Plus he swears a lot. It's weird to think of a "kill everyone" type band as personable, but Herr Warcrimer's real person-esque stylings really put me on Infernal War's side. When he growls, "nothing to prove" at the beginning of "Transfigure," the band touches on the same badass vibe that The Crown had during their brief moment of glory. Same rockin' justified arrogance, more explicitly hateful context, where, "the famine that makes a mother eat her own child," reigns. I genuinely feel that progress has been made.
North American release date: April 21, 2015
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