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INTERNAL DECAY
Demo 2022

These black and white covers, however cool the artwork is, all seem to melt into one another as band’s strive for that old school demo feel.

This debut demo from Chicago, Illinois-based Internal Decay has a rather horrible, clanking drum sound at times – I’m assuming it is programming, but I could be wrong. However, this is still a tasty, albeit short (two tracks) release and acts as a positive way for Internal Decay to announce itself within the death metal genre.

I do like the vocal approach which is not necessarily a deep, guttural growl but a more measured, menacing throaty rasp as ‘Starscourger’ maintains a mid-paced tempo, more so with those gruelling vocal traits, but it’s still a catchy expression even with the rather robotic percussion.

‘Suffering From Smoke Inhalation’ begins with a level of menacing dissonance, hinting at a stark black / death vibe before those immense meaty chugs come rolling in like volumes of animal blubber thrown into a mincer. It’s still steady, if somewhat mechanized death metal which drifts towards darker, slower and doomier passages.

My only real quibble is that this release is all over too quickly and it’s hard to judge a band on just eight-minutes of music. However, if you like mid-tempo, melancholic death metal then this is one to add to the list. Just don’t confuse this Internal Decay with the batch of other acts of the same name that have been, gone or are still around.

For those of you interested, the demo is available here.

Neil Arnold

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