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INFESTED
Grotesque Remains (2021)

From the sordid depths of Los Angeles, the less than imaginatively named Infested make up for their bland moniker with a scorchingly squalid and brutal death metal offering that scalps you, flays you, and tears every sinew from your body and dangles you like a gory puppet.

Infested is a raging sea of torrential audible butchery crafted by three unhinged individuals who are Chris Johnson (vocals / guitar), Sasha Gallant (bass) and Ethan Ayala (drums).

Grotesque Remains is a full on seething, scathing non-stop assault ‘n’ battery from start to finish, guaranteeing that any brave listener will be bludgeoned beyond recognition by the time the final chords of closer ‘Arrival….’ leak like seeping pus from your orifice.

If you like hammering, belligerent and above all butchering death metal then this demo needs your attention. After the short intro (‘Space’) you must succumb to the horrific pounding of ‘Internal Subspecies’. The track is a guttural rush of foul air with no filter, the trio grating, gnashing and grinding in tandem to accompany those filthy vocal layers which lay thick upon the chest like rancid phlegm. This is harrowing death metal; cavernous but mostly relentless, foaming with blackened aggression and yet accessible to its core as the riffs slow to create monolithic grooves that chug with fetid aplomb.

The title track ‘Grotesque Remains’ follows suite with the same hammering pistons of piss, putridity and pustulence as sickening percussion hastily pounds. It’s a release typical of the Sewer Rot Records roster; a mash up of miasmic evil and super-fast flurries of echoing morbidity. It only takes one listen before your bones begin to splinter, your skull cracks, your eyes burst from their sockets and the grinding bass and deep, churning guitars coat you in oily lava.

In a sense, Infested has no real emotion. All they do is express ravenous fury where the only respite is those slower segments whereby the vocals drip from the thickening gloop like slime-coated gurgles.

‘Infestation Of Impurity’ is the slowest expression of offer. It’s a bowel-removing heave of massive riffage and disgusting drumming, but it remains unrelenting, often no frills and yet suffocating as the foam continues to boil at its own sorry shore of sickness.

A full-length offering cannot come any sooner, but it may take some time for me to recover from those gooey waves of gore. This is one of the best demo releases of the year for sure… so become congested with the putrid nightmare that is Infested.

For those interested, the Grotesque Remains demo is available digitally, as well as in cassette and CD format via Sewer Rot Records from Bandcamp.

Neil Arnold

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