Hey there tech fiends, it's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual reminder that if you're looking for more sick music, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
While it was The End of An Era that first introduced me to Inferi, not it's much better known follow up The Path Of Apotheosis, even in 2009 the groups talented melodic death metal meets technical death metal combo interested me. The Path Of Apotheosis took the technical part of their equation much higher, and with an overall full-throttle approach most of the time. Given how highly beloved their 2014 album is, it took the band several years to release their upcoming album, Revenant. If you're new to the band they sound to me like a bypoduct of merging Conducting From The Grave, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Alterbeast's styles in a blender. If you're looking for something awesome to hear today, click play on our early full stream of Revenant below. The album drops on April 21st to coincide with this year's Record Store Day.
As a whole, Revenant follows much of the last albums turbo chargerd melodic shred approach delivered at blistering tempos and full of endless headbanging inducing glory. It's interesting to hear the subtle tweaks Inferi has focused on this go around in order to top that one. Once again, the album continues the last ones trend of leaning more in to their technical death metal side while still balancing that with their purely melodic ideas at the core of their syle. There's also a lot more dare I say groovy stomping reprieves throughout the album that offer a nice change of pace but also some gladly welcomed increased heaviness.
The orchestal layers the band often employs in their music also sees more prominence this go around. Often they serve as haunting instrumental introductions for the blazing horror soon to come, while other times they add a backing wall of atmosphere while the music is at it's most destructive and speedy. On top of all that, adding insanely skilled bassist Joel Schwallier (Dawn Of Dementia/Kossuth) to the group certainly adds another rich layer to the songs here not present on past efforts bass guitar wise.
I liked Inferi – The Path Of Apotheosis because it was a finely honed offering of material that didn't seek to redefine the wheel, merely seeking to please and destroy and doing a damn good job at it. I can definitely say I love Revenant even more for the nuanced diversity and epic, theatrical sound of it's catchy, melodic centered, and headbang friendly approach to technical death metal done at even a higher level than the last high quality offering from the band. If you dig what you're hearing below, you can purchase Revenant through Bandcamp and in a variety of merch/bundle packages. Be sure to follow the group over on the Inferi Facebook page.
