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INFERNUS
Grinding Christian Flesh

Moribund (2015)
Rating: 8.5/10

Black and white cover, red logo. Yep, it’s another billowing black mass of a record from another band all in frenzy over annihilating satanic death thrash. They exist in their legions under the order of the goat but instead of borrowing from the bile that is, say, Blasphemy or Beherit, this Portland, Oregon-based combo instead relies on even more hellish beats.

I absolutely love this record, the second full-length spell cast from Infernus; a jovial bunch hell-bent on twisting the cross, spawning the devil and frightening your parents – if that’s still at all possible within the heavy metal realm?

For some truly dungeon-bound black thrash death metal featuring some truly grisly vocal yaps, then you can’t go wrong with this foetid affair. Wild, crazy solos, sickening toxic fumes of ash, grim rusty chains swung madly and a despicable sound echoing through the black passageways is the order of the day here for creeping, slimy dreadful echoes of doom.

I missed these guys first time round with their 2012 debut Nex Um Monastica but boy am I glad that I’ve joined the congregation for this ritual. Fifteen tracks, including two covers – Horna’s ‘Black Metal Sodomy’ and Inquisition’s ‘Crush The Jewish Prophet’ – and a whole lot of bloodshed and blasphemy wrapped up in an extraordinarily nightmarish aura, all built upon a foundation of Bathory-styled dissonance which rings around the caverns like some yelping demon wading through another orgy of blood.

From slower, doom-laden passages to traditional metal gallops of starkness, this is such a creepy and overtly satanic album that after my first listen I ran straight to a confessional box to free me of my sins. Hell comes in many shapes, such as the miserable snarl of ‘Worms Of The Casket’ which incorporates menacing speed with gentler sighs of ghastly horror, whereas ‘Pagan Warfront’ goes all out for blazing black metal speed and peculiar guitar structures which jab at the flesh like blades held by a maniac.

At the forefront of this madness is Hredthel; a despicable wraith of a man whose utterances are akin to the chilling flap of a bats wings and orc-like mocking burps. Infernus churn out the sort of black metal that was greatly feared in the early to mid 90s; the music is ungainly, primitive and flecked with patches of hate bringing to mind Dissection with the variances of death and black metal, particularly on the hammering title track. For me though, there is something far unholier about this rancid bunch of incomprehensibles who seem more than happy to hang around graveyards of a night and record their albums in some of the desecrated coffins.

With titles like ‘Sodomfeast’, ‘Hang The Gutted Christians’ and ‘Whore Of Christ’ you know this isn’t going to be easy ride. These songs aren’t just creations to shock, however; instead, they literally pulverise in their perversity as black thrash batterings, ‘Whore Of Christ’ being a classic slice of 80s-styled nastiness before we reach the two impressive cover versions which will serve to break those already chilled and fragile bones.

For those of you who thought the black metal scene has become tired and turgid, think again and step into the infinite blackness that is Infernus.

Neil Arnold

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