The Age of Harvest

Inverted

If you've kept up to date with the Death Metal scene in general, then you […]
By Danny Sanderson
March 23, 2015
Inverted - The Age of Harvest album cover

If you've kept up to date with the Death Metal scene in general, then you know that Italy is basically producing some of the very best Death Metal bands in the world at the moment. Whereas some scenes tend to focus more on the old school sound, Italian bands have been putting out music that is sharp, fresh and modern. And INVERTED are no exception to this rule; forming in 2008, the band has slowly gained a small, but cult status in the Italian Death Metal scene, and their latest release, their second full length album "The Age of Harvest" is set to be their most prolific and challenging record to date.

The opening song, "Abiura", bursts out of the speakers immediately, and leaves an impression on the listener. It's fast, ferocious, and above all, brutal. It's driven by machine gun drumming, sharp riffs and thick, tar-like vocals that hang over the track throughout. It's short and sweet, and is a great way to begin this album. The second track, "Across the Snow to Nowhere", continues in this same vein, and moves continually forward at blistering speeds. It's got powerful, confident rhythm sections, and some great lead guitar lines that add a dark, foreboding atmosphere to this track. The third part of this effort, "Caves", has a much more modern, progressive edge to it than the first two songs. This sound is achieved mostly through the guitar work on offer here, which is much more fluid and polished, and possibly slightly more Post-Metal influenced pieces on it than the songs before it, which had a much heavier, traditional sound to them.

"Vexilla Prodeunt Regis Inferni" is pretty much the best song on this album; it goes down a much more Blackened Death Metal route, within cold sounding, tremolo picked guitar leads and relentless drumming typical of Black Metal, coupled with the meatier, more substantial tropes of Death Metal. The hooks on here are more likely to stick with you than those that have come earlier on this record. The following track, "E. R. Weapons" is a fairly straight forward, and really good, Technical Death Metal masterpiece. It's so unbelievably fast, and the music so over the top at points, that the track almost teeters on the very edge of descending into chaos, which is how pretty much every truly great Tech Death track should sound. "Tunguska" a very straight forward slab of Blackened Death Metal that has some really cool grooves and guitar hooks in it that really make the song as good as it is. The penultimate song on here, is a very strong, dissonant and fierce sounding song called "Towards the Summit of No Return", which again has a lot of really amazing, groovy guitar hooks that really bring the track to life. The final song, "Clear Sky", is a brilliant way to close the album, as it makes one last effort to really leave an impression on the listener, and it definitely does. It has plenty of elements from across the Death Metal spectrum within it, from harsh edge of Black Metal, to the progressive discordance of Tech Death. By the time it's faded away, the band have well and truly left their mark on their audience.

The "Difficult Second Album" is an often talked about idea in music, and this band have managed to surpass their previous work with ease. This has a bit of something for everyone, no matter where they stand in the Death Metal scene, and they are certainly doing their country proud and keeping up the high standard of music from the Italian scene intact.

8 / 10

Excellent

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"The Age of Harvest" Track-listing:

1. Abiura
2. Across the Snow to Nowhere
3. Caves
4. Vexilla Prodeunt Regis Inferni
5. E. R. Weapons
6. Tunguska
7. Towards the Summit of No Return
8. Clear Sky

Inverted Lineup:

Daniele Deola - Bass
Enrico Scriminich - Drums
Andrea Tocchetto- Guitars
Alessandro Scriminich - Guitars
Gianluigi Giacon - Vocals

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