Time for something heavy, something very heavy. Time for some Death Metal crush and destroy coolness. Time for In-Quest. Douglas Verhoeven and Jan Geenan are the In-Quest axe team. Their riffage is rough and heavy and their lead-work fits the mood of their music perfectly. Matt Lofber (vocals) has a cool growl and doesn't go overboard and their use of sound clips is good.
In-Quest are a Metal band from Belgium. These Death/Grind metallers' first album (Extrusion: Battlehymns)came out in 1997. They have been playing for the underground Metal scene for around ten years now and they have near perfected Death/Grind Metal. Since then they have released four records and switched singers. Their second album came out in 1999 (Operation: Citadel) and Destination: Pyroclasm in 2003. The coolly but less dramatically named Epileptic was released in 2004 and The Comatose Quandries saw its way to my CD player in 2005.
The best part of In-Quest is its guitarists (Douglas Verhoeven and Jan Geenen). Everyone else does a satisfactory job but are nowhere near as exciting. The guitar-work is angry and fast. When Douglas and Jan are on, they are an impressive axe-team and they are on an awful lot. Sometimes when they are in search for a little extra crunch to their already formidable playing they overpower the melody. Though these moments are never for long and Verhoeven and Geenen are back to kicking your musical buttcheeks. I can't wait for them to finish conquering this problem and when they do I'll be high fiving everyone in sight! The singer is also good, he has a great scream and a pretty good growl as well.
Operation; Citadel is what In-Quest is all about. It is heavy, fast, catchy and has the best lead-work. It even has some folk influence, though you might wonder how they can do it and remain so heavy, trust me, they can! Audiotox Binaries is vicious, catchy and very loud and Socioneural Genetitism and Frozen; Nuclear Aftermath are atmospheric and eerie. Normally these two tracks would be considered very heavy, but compared to the other songs on The Comatose Quandries they are mid-range.
The Comatose Quandries is a welcome addition to my CD collection. With its anger, atmosphere and most especially; riffage, it is exactly the sort of thing I've been hoping to hear from the Death Metal crowd lately. I hope Douglas and Jan get the melody problem figured out soon but nonetheless, The Comatose Quandries makes a delightful addition to the world of Death/Grind metal. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go headbang - Operation; Citadel is still playing in my head.