I’m not very familiar with the UKs Infant Annihilator, other than the ridiculous prices their first 2 albums are being sold for, and that some of the members are in down tempo act Black Tongue. But The Battle Of Yaldabaoth is my first time actually hearing them, and if it’s any indication, those prices are worth it, and this will soon fetch the same ransom.

In this day and age, it’s rare to find game changers, especially in the deathcore genre (Despised Icon was the last one I can think of) which seems reliant on its staples or just simply slowing it down or adding keyboards, but IA is in fact changing the game. While still deathcore or (technical deathcore/death metal or whatever), they have truly upped the intensity and technicality, not a notch but to insane levels. The only description I can come up with is deathcore rendered with Origin’s, Rings of Saturn’s or Equipoise’s over the top shreddage mixed with Anaal Nathrakh’s earlier sheer nastiness and The Berzerker’s mechanized grinding; all while still delivering deathcore’s tenets with ample gusto.

Just listen to the opening salvos of the first track, the brilliantly named “Childchewer” and second track, “Three Bastards”. WOW, just wow. And there are plenty of those wow moments littered throughout the album, that based on my research of prior albums, shows a level of growth and maturity from before, despite remaining insipidly blasphemous and offensive in their themes and lyrics with song titles like “Childchewer”, “A Rape of Sirens” and “Paedophillic Legacy” (though not up there with
“New Born Porn” or “Devotion to the Child Rape Syndicate”). Although there seems to be a more mature, developed central concept to this album with song titles like “The Kingdom Sitteth Lonely Beneath Thine Hollowed Heavens” and “Ere The Crimson Dawn” and an hour plus run time.

The drumming of Aaron Kitcher is the definite driving force, though at times, I swear the drums are programmed (hence The Berzerker vibe), but the percussive gravity blast assaults drives many of the albums wow moments such as the breakdowns in the 7 minute monster, “The Kingdom Sitteth Lonely Beneath Thine Hollowed Heavens”, “A Rape of Sirens”, and the killer title track as well as “Ere the Crimson Dawn”, where again you think you are hearing things you just haven’t heard yet in the genre. But the guitar work also is incredibly well done, shredding without being noodly or self-indulgent, and at times it’s just fucking savage (“Ov Sacrament and Sincest”, “Swinaecologist”), and I think I hear some Human Remains influence in some of the off kilter brutality (“Feast Ov Goreglutton”, the title track).

“Plaguebearer” is one of the few respites, with a slower lurch as its focal riff between explosions of utter insanity, and frankly it could have used more as by the time the likes of the sheer chaos of “Thy Faith, Thy Oblivion”, the title track and “Necropocalypse” (even with its orchestral intro) roll by, I’m mentally exhausted and my ears hurt, despite the brilliance consistently on display in every track.

The tech death elite will more than likely still scoff at this band and this release, as it does have pure deathcore vocals and plenty of breakdowns, but holy shit is this mind-blowingly good. And boy am glad I grabbed it before the prices start to reach the ridiculousness of the first 2 efforts, though after actually  hearing the band now, I might be inclined to actually pay some of those amounts.

Deathcore , both old and new is having a pretty solid year (Whitechapel, Angelmaker, Thy Art is Murder, Carnifex, Shadow of Intent) and this might be the cream of the crop as these guys are doing things in deathcore that no one else if doing right now, (without being gimmicky like Hunt the Dinosaur) making a maligned genre, challenging and interesting, while still bringing the tenets of the genre in spades

[Visit the band's website]

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