Review: Inferum – Human Disposal

Many metal fans in The Netherlands probably already heard about Inferum. This mechanical death metal band from Eindhoven formed in 2016. During the three years since their formation vocalist Morrison de Boer, guitarists Ozzy Voskuilen and Lars Deelman, bass player Stan Albers and drummer Wouter Macare already experienced a lot. To name a few of those things: they won the Dutch Metal Battle, The Dutch Wacken Battle and got to play the international Wacken Battle at Wacken Open Air, where they ended third, in that same year, 2017. They also released their debut EP, titled Modern Massacre, in 2017, which already sounded very nice. Their shows are also amazing and really strong, as I already experienced at their shows in Willemeen and at Complexity Fest. You can read my live reviews of those shows here (Willemeen) and here (Complexity Fest). Inferum’s show at Complexity Fest originally was planned to be the releaseshow of their debut full-length album, titled Human Disposal, but due to unforeseen circumstances the album release was delayed, so fans had to wait a bit longer to get it. However, that was the case in February, it’s April now. Now, Human Disposal finally is released!

Inferum immediately brings you in the right mood with the mysterious-sounding, partly electronical intro Decay Into Madness, which builds up until you almost can’t contain yourself anymore. After Decay Into Madness Inferum explodes out of your speakers with Surgical Schizophrenia. Very tight, short riffs are coming from Ozzy’s and Lars’ guitars that almost literally sound mechanic, something that of course must be the case with a band playing mechanical death metal. Sometimes we can also hear some more melodic guitars, but for the main part Inferum pounds very heavy. This surely is partly due to guitarists Ozzy and Lars, but they of course aren’t the only ones being responsible for this.

I already knew that vocalist Morrison sounds very intense and brutal and he again proves this on Human Disposal. What a voice he has! This surely has a huge part in how crushing Human Disposal is. Whether his vocals are extremely deep, like in Autophagia and Locked-In or more scream-like in, for example, Paranormal Reality, it surely is extremely brutal!

Drummer Wouter also puts a lot of energy in this album, he really drums like a beast! His drums on this album also sound quite intense, which makes this stand out even more. To get an example of this, be sure to listen to Beyond Reach. Something else this track is a good example of is to hear that the drums as well as the guitars regularly play a progressive, but also very heavy rhythm.

Human Disposal contains quite a lot of rhythm-changes, which makes this album very interesting. Listen, for example, to Pathogenic, which is also a good example for showing you how much Human Disposal pounds and grooves. However, at some moments that same track also sounds pretty atmospheric and, at the end, haunting. That same atmospheric vibe is something that can be heard during more moments on Human Disposal, despite the huge pounding score of this album. It even contains a few atmospheric resting moments during, for example, Surgical Schizophrenia and Pathogenic, but these remain limited to a few short moments, with the exception of the Interlude. That Interlude is something really special by the way, because it shows a different, also nice, side of Inferum: quiet, ambient-y and with melodic guitars and slow drums. However, towards the end this Interlude shows to get darker and to be serving as a perfect intro for this album’s title track. The title track also contains that same atmospheric vibe, but is also quite heavy. At some moments it even sounds a bit towards atmospheric black metal. Vocally, Morrison can be heard a bit different during this track compared to the other tracks: he sounds even darker and his vocals in this track are a bit more spoken-word-like instead of singing. This however gives a really awesome vibe to this track. This track surely is the stand-out track of this album and it definitely is very clear that this track is very worthy of being the title track. Just as the preceding Interlude, it shows a different side of Inferum than the one we know of them, but it certainly is Inferum. With this track Inferum shows that they are capable of more than people already knew. This title track also is my personal favorite of this album, but that was quite a difficult choice to make with such as strong album.

Inferum delivers an extremely strong debut full-length on which they sound like they already play on a very high level for many years. That’s something I also already thought while listening Modern Massacre and during their shows. Inferum really does a good job, especially because of their relatively short existence of three years and their average age being 20. It almost can’t be different than that Inferum has a very good future ahead of them!

You can also read two parts of Promoting Bands that included Inferum here and here.

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