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HUMAN INFECTION
Curvatures In Time

Blast Head (2014)
Rating: 8/10

These Virginia-based extreme metallers are no doubt going to appeal to most fans of brutal death metal, such is their barbarism. They’ve got it all; growling vocals, raging drums, pounding riffs and pummelling bass. At times, they hint at the old school values which we grew up with, as bands such as Suffocation spring to mind.

It’s pretty much no-holds barred death metal often played at pace, but also featuring a few nicer, slower segments where the vocals of Andrew Brown come into their own as a guttural force.

Curvatures In Time comes three years after Human Infection’s debut Infest To Ingest (2011), which was at times predictable in its quest for gore-ridden abandonment. Even so, the bruising quartet are down for another dabble in those often frequented waters of deadly death metal, taking the best of bands like Cannibal Corpse too as they hurtle their way through the nine tracks on offer.

Admittedly, this record whizzes by, such is the extremity of the riffs and the fact it’s only 30 or so minutes in length. It takes a while to get into the songs, which on average run for about three-and-a-half minutes. Curvatures In Time is best appreciated when one tries to single out each instrument within several listens, otherwise this will act as a seemingly unworldly blur. One thing that immediately strikes hard, however, is the drums of C.J. Giles, who is an absolute beast on the skins, adding gargantuan weight on tracks such as the opener ‘Celestial’ and the bracing ‘Sacrificial Skies’.

It’s not just a case of heads down and run for cover though, because the band inject some excellent moments of melody. While these passages rarely last that long, they give the album a perverse edge and bring to mind the demented grooves of Obituary. Andrew Mathews is a wiz on the guitar, providing crushing riffs throughout the likes of ‘In Vain’ and the closing title track, which blew me away upon first listen.

Curvatures In Time, despite sporadic complexity, is a no frills affair admittedly but it’s one so severe in its mauling that you just have to lay back and take the full force of this as a record which is happy to pay homage to those old school masters. It’s clearly a big step forward from their debut, and it’s the sort of composition that should massacre the senses of anyone who calls themselves a real death metal fan.

While it’s nigh on impossible to reinvent the wheel, Human Infection have decided to simply become part of it and crush all in their wake. Curvatures In Time is a solid affair, and proof that there is still life in the old death metal dog yet.

Neil Arnold

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