INHERIT DISEASE - Ephemeral
May 31, 2016, 7 years ago
(Unique Leader)
Three albums with three brutal death metal titles in, and California's Inherit Disease prove on Ephemeral that they've got their sound nailed down to a brutal, bloody pulp. The band aren't so mired in bottom-heavy misery that the sound is unenjoyable, like many of their peers, though; this 40-minute album is lively like good DM is, and the band is positively on during the disc: check out the drum roll that opens “Divergence” for a good wake-up call. Tunes like “Neotroglodyte” grind along with the pace and briskness of grindcore but the intensity of brutal DM, creating a nice middle ground between the two, and that feeling continues to the more classic death metal of “Pixelated Hallucinations”, a song that might not sound totally out of place on an old Suffocation record yet also manages to sound modern.
When they take things down to a slower pace, as on “Lord Cyborg”, there's tons of power here: the band knows how to use a bit (just a bit, mind you) of breathing room to hit hard. Well played, Inherit Disease: I love death metal but find the technical and brutal strains to be a bit exhausting, yet here the band toys with both (not too tech, mind you) and manages to keep it enjoyable, energetic, and enthusiastic.
