Unearthly "Infernum - Prelude to a New Reign" CD
[Crash]
What the hell, another mediocre Brazilian band on Crash Music? This is what makes Crash one of the worst and most inconsistent labels of all time. How the fuck do they stay in business? With all of the good bands in the Brazilian underground, they somehow manage to find the most generic and worthless of the bunch and decide to release this junk? This is generic atmospheric black metal with a lot of keyboards and a pretty polished performance. It's more aggressive than Dimmu Borgir or whatever, there's a lot of speed and a pretty intense level of typical black metal flare, and hell, some of it's not so bad, but it's horribly boring. With songs routinely running more than six minutes, the fact that this disc offers up nothing new, and that what it does offer up is not at all interesting or exciting, really starts to get old... and fast. And shit, the last track is a trilogy that's split into three tracks and runs more than 12 minutes. I guess that makes this "conceptual atmospheric black metal"? I'll pass. Tremolo picking out the ass, slower melodic runs, orchestral keyboards that serve no purpose and don't match up with the guitar riffs, sneering high-pitched vocals, blasting drums, repetitive song structures... that's all there is to it. The recording is actually decent. The keyboards muddy things up too much, but the guitar tone works out and has a sharp edge, the bass is audible, and the rigidity of the drums is tactful. Were they to drop the synths and write songs that had some power I might actually enjoy it. For this type of record the cover art isn't so bad, it's typical, what with the flames, pentagrams, inverted crucifixions, etc. But it's not so bad. Then I opened up the booklet and was treated to numerous posed band photos that just scream "Extra cheese, please!" Lots of black metal makeup, lots of bullets, a few bloody doves, bloody skulls, dudes pretending to cut their throats or wearing spiked brass knuckles... silliness all around. And of course the lyrics are, what else, anti-christian diatribes: "Humanity, creatures of habit in need of superior beings. Need of idols, and heroes. Need of superior entities. Eternally taught to search for the 'lord' to reach eternal life. Following the divine, christians are enchained, following the path of Christ, following the path of lies..." Whatever. This isn't the worst thing I've ever heard, and it has its moments, but I still couldn't care less about it. (4/10)
Running time - 48:32, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: this isn't a horrible record, but not one song stands out at all]
Crash Music - http://www.crashmusicinc.com

This review has been displayed 1203 times.