Well, look out guys, we’re in for another brutal outing. See, a band usually lets you know they mean fucking business when they have one of them thesaurus type names. Hence Arborescence of Wrath with the surprisingly tame album name Inferno (Transcending Obscurity Records).
Do I know what Arborescence of Wrath is supposed to fucking mean? No. Was I supposed to know the word Suspiria meant? No, but Dario Argento did paint some vivid and violent images that stuck with me for years.
Inferno pun aside, why did I bring Argento up in this review? Well, it’s because this version of Inferno is decidedly a very monochromatic affair. The brief moments of lead guitar we get on “Hangman” and “Carnage” are very exciting but are just a tease in an ocean of tremolo picking and triggered kick drums.
And yes, before every moronic internet metal nerd decides to share their opinion about this on Twitter – or fucking X, whatever – I am well aware of how the sausage is made. Most metal bands these days use triggers and a little studio magic when recording. I get it. What bands need to do is at least try to mask the clearly digital bits somewhat better.
Call me old but years (more like decades) ago one of the reasons why Napalm Death came across as exciting or even dangerous to a young Slayer fan was the fact that a dude like Mick Harris was willing to go way past the redline in an era with no artificial fallbacks.
But my biggest gripe with Inferno is that it wants to be brutal so fucking bad that it forgets to actually write some proper songs. To get ahead of the online community, I will remind them that tracks like Cannibal Corpse’s “Stripped, Raped and Strangled” and Carcass’ “Pyosisified (Still Rotten to the Gore)” all clear the circle pit/slam test while still being amazing earworms. Same can be said for Skinless’ Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead which happens to feature Arborescence of Wrath’s vocalist Jason Keyser.
It ain’t Argento, but if it’ll do if you are looking to put your fist through a wall.
Buy the album here:
https://arborescenceofwrath.bandcamp.com/album/inferno
6 / 10
HANS LOPEZ