Death metal is a helluva thing. If you tried to explain to a random person on the street the concept of the genre: the whole goal is to talk about societal strife and gore with incredibly heavy riffs and fucked up vocals no one can understand. They might not even believe it exists. Hell, I, like many of you have found myself explaining this time and time again. When you get to the more technical stuff like Abolishment Of Flesh it becomes harder still to explain why any would be so passionate about this. Yet, there is something that draws us in time and time again.
With strong songwriting and a thrilling vision, the guys in this band are finally ready to unleash an offering that was 10 years in the making. Their first full length and first release in six years, it would be easy to think of Abolishment Of Flesh as another forgotten group who might never make a splash. Yet this debut suggests there is a lot to come from these guys. While they certainly struggle with elements of "local band syndrome" and some of the execution isn't quite where it needs to be, this is a remarkable debut effort from a group who has been through so much turmoil.
I think what gets me about Abolishment Of Flesh is their ability to incorporate multiple sides of the genre into something far greater. While on the one hand you certainly find technical flourishes and even elements of straight up In Flames inspired melodeath on tracks like "Morbid Imagery," there are also devastating chugs that only the legendary TXDM scene could conjure up. Unafraid to wear their influences on their sleeve, certain tracks you can almost pick out who inspired which passage. While the primary influences definitely seem to be Suffocation and Cattle Decapitation, there are also moments of straight up Death worship. This serves to make the entire thing a blast to dig through. You're constantly poking around in new and exciting elements and these notions seem to keep propagating, serving to ever expand what The Inhuman Condition can be.
While yes, the execution is sometimes lacking, that's part of the fun. There is something incredibly thrilling about getting to watch a band with so much potential develop. The manic riffing on a song like 'Lack Of Emotions' proves once more that this group is capable of so much. The Inhuman Condition is a journey through the peaks and valleys of death metal. It's an album that guides you along as you attempt to wrap your head around some of the most twisted music known to man. It's never forgiving but instead seems to relish in its own punishing brutality—that's a part of why I love it. The stunning grooves and perpetual forward motion embodied in this release have me absolutely hooked. Toss in a few manic solos with a couple nice lyrical touches, you find yourself reveling in a record that can't help but hint at magic to come.
Score: 7/10
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