It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Infernal Coil’s Burning Prayer of Infinite Hatred.
If you live in the U.S. you’re probably counting down the days to Christmas, whether you want to or not. And if you’re as introverted as I am you’re probably trying to avoid the rest of humanity because, let’s face it, they’re a plague. Lucky for us, Infinite Hatred released Burning Prayer of Infinite Hatred a bit back. It's something with spitfire anger and hatred that just might help you survive the holiday season. I mutter the title of this EP to myself almost every day that I walk into work.
While the mighty, slaying Dead in the Dirt is on hold, we have Blake Connally’s Infernal Coil, a band that descends more into vicious, grinding death and black metal. Hell, you could say that this album is more of a death metal album than anything else. And I’d agree with you. It’s like if Teitanblood shortened their amazing epic black/death approach and threw in some heavy grind influences. But there’s still a lot of grind in this beast.
Burning Prayer of Infinite Hatred is the kind of album that sounds like it’s on fire. The riffs sound like a cracking blast furnace, if the opener “True Nature” is any indicator. And it should come as no surprise that Connally knows how to belt out the blasts. It opens like a surprise assault and continues with unrelenting force. However, it’s not just one continuous blast. “True Nature” slows things up and gets nice and heavy, but still keeps it raw.
There’s a lot of slowed down, moodier moments sprinkled throughout. “Our Punishment” drags you down into the depths. It sounds like your dredging through a dark, dank dungeon. It’s haunting in its slow-going. The beginning, and various points following, of “Down-Going in Shadow” takes it in similar stride. The tracks are like dizzying spirals that still have the courtesy to stick you in the side with a knife. Especially when the frenzied screaming kicks in.
If you haven’t listened to this already (why haven’t you listened to this already?), you’ll notice it’s not a pure grindcore or deathgrind record (like I mentioned earlier). Burning Prayer of Infinite Hatred is very strongly death metal, a lot of deathgrind, and a good dash of black metal. In short, it’s grinds-a-plenty and that’s what counts. Plus, anyone who is into this sort of thing that hasn’t heard it needs to. Infernal Coil is already an incredible project and right now, I think a lot of us need this right now.
I'm here.
