REPLICANT - Infinite Mortality
Transcending Obscurity Records
While listening to this New Jersey band's third album I couldn't help but think how some of these cuts would've made a great soundtrack to a 2023 year in review video. I mean this is what you get with dissonant death metal. No matter the lyrics you'll hear music with sounds reminding you of other things on your mind. Yes current events are troublesome but when amplified by a three piece death metal band it can get worse.
For example the trudging riffs remind you of the sounds of mechanized military war machines. Add to that the concussive percussion and dive bomb solos comes across like artillery blasts. Then again we are a world at war. The angry vocals or those wails of pain remind one of the turmoil we face in the wars over culture and politics. You'll have one side screaming at one another. While on the other side it's people screaming to just stop and leave us alone. Then when the band dials down to some death doom atmospherics just wait till you feel the walls are closing in on you.
Yeah music like this gives you plenty to ponder but then that's what REPLICANT is all about. I learned that a few years back when I heard their second album, Malignant Reality, which came out in 2021 and also on Transcending Obscurity Records. What they did on that record was definitely interesting as well as memorable (more like nightmarish). On this latest one they've taken their formula and pushed it further into the diabolical abyss of one's imagination. But before I go on about their formula there's a reassessment I need to make since last time around.
If you live by an ocean then you'll understand. You ever stand on a shore line and look out to the sea to view some rock formation at low tide. Then when the tide comes in those rocks are covered from view. To me that's what this whole Avant-garde tech death metal scene has become over the past few years. So as much as I'd like what REPLICANT is doing on here. In a short while they'll be a few more coming in with the tide. And nothing against Transcending Obscurity Records but they do have a roster full of bands doing the same thing. There's another label who I won't mention but I use to love until almost every release they've put out in the past two years sounds like the same band.
But hey to give REPLICANT their due on here they're still a tech death band that doesn't drive me into an ADD frenzy (says the guy who loves grindcore). Infinite Mortality is like staring into a vortex but instead of being greeted by brutality it's more comforting. Instead of a reached out hand it's still a horned fist but you're like cool I'll come in. Then comes the punishment of riff variety, a background of atmospheric lead work as well as dive bomb solos. Add to that the various vocal styling between pain, more pain, absolute misery and gutt-wrenching anger. Yeah it's like watching the news albeit comforting.
Every night when I get off of work. I sit down at the bar with one of my co-worker friends. We drink a beer or two (or three) and talk about the shift, the next day's worth of bullshit and laugh. While this is going on the bartender is playing horrible fuckin music. That's when I look at my friend and say "this is why I go home and listen to death metal." Tonight I came home and listened to REPLICANT's Infinite Mortality for the tenth time and the year is looking good for Death Metal until.......
LISTEN HERE:
https://replicantband.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-mortality
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