ALBUM REVIEW: The Inhuman Condition – Abolishment of Flesh
When it comes to obscure extreme metal, you often have to wade through a mire of mediocre releases before being lucky enough to stumble across any true gems. When those records do rear their disgustingly heavy heads however, the rewards can be more than worth the wait, and the debut full length from Texan wrecking crew ABOLISHMENT OF FLESH is no exception.
Battering you right out of the gate with a thunderstorm of blast beats and death growls, The Inhuman Condition wastes no time in making its cataclysmic intentions known. Inhuman Anatomy may only be just shy of three minutes in length, but its soul destroying, bone crunching heaviness leaves you feeling as if you can’t take any more despite it only being the first track.
The bleak destruction continues throughout the record, but although sheer aural assault is the main order of the day, there are also some technically brilliant yet surprisingly subtle passages scattered in amongst the carnage. The riffs on Servitude of Endless Suffering, while often taking a backseat, are at times a dazzling display of technicality and groove – a combination often attempted but rarely pulled off to such an extent.
On the surface this is a bonafide deathgrind record not too dissimilar to the kind of thing you’d expect from CATTLE DECAPITATION, however delve beneath the first few layers of monstrous annihilation and you’ll discover elements of melodic death metal found on Slaves of Animosity and even fleeting flashes of the more aggressive side of PANTERA-esque heavy metal that’s present on Morbid Imagery. It’s these hints of other genres that make The Inhuman Condition such an interesting proposition.
These sorts of records are usually pretty cut and dry and tend to follow a similar sort of pattern – turn up, smash your skull to pieces with a barrage of disgustingly vicious violence, leave. What we have here however is a slab of earthquake inducing metal that manages to weave in glimpses of more technical and more melodic elements, even if the latter moments are mostly buried under the tidal wave of depravity and despair. This variation keeps the record interesting, and it reveals just enough upon first listen to lure you back for more.
If you were to pick holes with the album, the production would be a rather obvious place to start. Yes, it is cleaner than 90% of records produced by ABOLISHMENT OF FLESH‘s contemporaries, yet it still has an unnecessary murkiness to its sound that, if sharpened up ever so slightly, would allow it the room to breathe and expand into more than the lumbering beast that it currently is. The vocals are also far from perfect; some notes seeming out of range and others perhaps not providing enough of a challenge and sounding a bit flat as a result. The contrast between the death growls and the black metal style wails is also incredibly jarring in places, as if the two were left to fight to the death without either side ending up victorious. When the sweet spot is hit though, as on the excellent Weeping for the Decayed, all is forgiven in a palpitating heartbeat.
What The Inhuman Condition is then is, above all, a record that hints at an extremely promising future for its creators. There are undoubtedly chinks in the armour, but if ABOLISHMENT OF FLESH could smooth off the rougher edges and add some gloss to the production, then the world of extreme metal could be in for a glorious surprise when the time comes for a new album. In its current state this is still well worth your time, and is further proof that 2018 is shaping up to what could be one of the very best years for metal in the 21st Century.
Rating: 8/10
The Inhuman Condition is set for release on April 20th via Unholy Anarchy Records.
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