Beats and yelling: Infrahumano

Depths of Suffering
Out 31^st October on Lavadome Productions

The rough presentation of this album cloaks a well oiled machine of dramatic, borderline orchestral death metal. The music’s darkness emerges not from a drab, introspective melancholia, but from a pervasive, ambient gloom, as if we were in the presence of some unknowably vast presence, be it natural or mythological, the power of which gives rise to a growing awareness of our own insignificance. In this sense the somewhat lo-fi mix (by modern death metal standards at least) goes some way to elevating the material, allowing it to pose as obscurantist, mystical, alien, despite the depth and breadth of technical and compositional activity demonstrated across these tracks.

The rhythm guitar is somewhat dirgey, holding just enough form to articulate the broad range of jagged, technical riffing alongside the fluidity of tremolo picked runs. It dominates all in the mix, leaving the frequent lead passage positioned as somewhat incidental, unexpected commentary singing their way above the thick lacquer of motion swirling at the centre of the mix. Drums are inevitably supressed as a result, the production being unable to contain both the power of the guitar and any depth of field in the percussion. The expertise behind the performance shines through regardless, with the majority of riffs finding themselves framed by a counterpoint drum pattern, only sporadically leaning on a linear blast or back-beat. Singularly monstrous vocals complete the picture, cementing the overall presentation as uniquely primal, powerful, monolithic.

Infrahumano perhaps most closely resemble Immolation at their best. Technical death metal in the sense that the musicianship is sharp, the riffing complex, and the writing dense, but replacing the dry machinations of cut and dry techdeath with opulent, flowing melodic material that could just as well have been composed for a symphony orchestra. This blend of compacted, materially rich death metal, alongside a spacious, flowing dark romanticism allows for greater peaks and troughs of contrast. Primal outbursts sit happily alongside dignified guitar leads, multi-dimensional riffing gives way to transparent, linear runs of majestic melodies, choppy chromaticism prepares the ground for bursts of surprising lyricism.

Despite the rampant urgency that doesn’t seem to let up for the entire runtime, there is a sense of permanence and inevitability conveyed across ‘Depths of Suffering’. The immediacy and brute physicality of the experience gives way to the feeling of connecting with an older, arcane presence, tapping into aged forms and mores, broadcast through the ponderous eddies defining the flow of this music. Detailed at the molecular level, but rich and totalising at the macro.