Inferis

Mental Cruelty

The very first song "Planet of Misery" is very reminiscent of THY ART IS MURDER […]
By John Paul Romero
April 22, 2019
Mental Cruelty - Inferis album cover

The very first song "Planet of Misery" is very reminiscent of THY ART IS MURDER specially the album "Holy War". It is very atmospheric, the bass is dense, the drums are all over the place, and the overall mood is intensely heavy. "Blood Altar" then quickly backs the song up with Lucca Schmerler's beastly growls and screams. In this song they exploited Deathcore's most popular weapon - breakdowns. It has lots of heavy, intense and sick breakdowns. It is actually safe to say that at least 30% of the song are breakdowns. "Tormentium" reminded me of another Deathcore band from the same label which released an album late in the 2018. The band is called "Within Destruction", and I really enjoyed the album they released called "Deathwish" because of its overdose of heaviness and earth-shaking grooves. Those two elements are what brought life to "Tormentium", and that came along with a very dark ambience and an amazing guitar solo.

In the first four songs, it is clear that the album is going on a fixed direction - and that is towards heavy grooves, dense bass lines, mid paced attacks, and dark atmospheric sound. But that is until "Mundus Vult Decipi". Here,  they employed a fast and really aggressive intro. The vocal work is stellar, utilizing a combo of Death growls, fry screams and really mad squeals. The drum work is also overwhelming. It is simply all over the place. The song "God Hunt" is clearly the peak of the album. It has such a storm of a pace. The guitar work is virtuous. The shiftiness is there, but the heaviness and the dark ambiance is not sacrificed. Kevin Popescu's excellence behind the drum kit is on full display. Following immediately is "Human Evisceration" which is nearly as impressive as "God Hunt". The only difference is that "God Hunt" has a more dynamic pace and has a more complex song structure. But besides those, all the elements present in "God Hunt" are what "Human Evisceration" carried with it.

The closing track is where it gets awkward. The momentum kicked up at the second half of the album only to be closed by a three-minute void. It is just a lazy filler with 98% lazy instrumentals and 2% lazy filler vocals. Definitely not the way you close an album with an adrenaline overflowing from the penultimate tracks. "Inferis", nonetheless is a decent Deathcore album with amazing work on drums and vocals. It is dynamic, dark, and heavy. All tracks except the first and last tracks are headbang-worthy, and will surely make killer live performances. The only issue you can see here is the lack of innovation, and very minimal originality. All songs sound like THY ARY IS MURDER, WHITECHAPEL and CARNIFEX. Great production nonetheless.

7 / 10

Good

Songwriting

7

Musicianship

6

Memorability

7

Production

9
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"Inferis" Track-listing:

1. Inferis
2. Planet of Misery
3. Blood Altar
4. Tormentium
5. Priest of Damnation
6. Mundus Vult Decipi
7. Cosmic Indifference
8. God Hunt
9. Human Evisceration
10. Monocerotis

Mental Cruelty Lineup:

Lucca Schmerler - Vocals
Marvin Kessler - Guitars
Viktor Dick - Bass
Dennis Paßmann - Guitars
Kevin Popescu - Drums

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