Well here is a unique release.  French death metal band Ad Vitam Infernal debuts with their first full length record Infernal Comedy.  This group consists of Jerome Mahe on guitars and bass and Samuel Girard on vocals.  Both of these guys program the drums.  This is kind of surprising to discover writing this review as the drums are one of my favorite parts of this album.   Ad Vitam Infernal sounds like a hybrid of Krisiun and Hate Eternal with their approach to Morbid Angel/Deicide like Death Metal.  I even hear a bit of Centurian in the guitar tone.  This album wastes no time blasting your face off with the opening title track.

“Abject”, “Hell hunger” and “No Sides” are among my favorite tracks on this.  The album moves a long quite quickly with tracks generally around 3 to 5 minutes.  The flow of the album is fine.   35 minutes is a perfect length for a death metal record. The metal portions of the album our great.  What kills me about this album are the spoken word parts.  This is such a grey area for many acts but for this release I feel like the album would have been even better without them.   There are releases out there that have similar parts that artists might be able to get away with (Nile’s Vile Narcotic Rites).  For my money I can do without.  Particularly with the closing track “Insane Prayer”.

There is a lot to like about this debut. Being that this group has been around since 2017 I am sure this two man duo put a lot of time into these arrangements.  I do look forward to future releases from Ad Vitam Infernal. If they can find a legit drummer to play these tracks that would definitely add to their dynamic.   Totally worth checking out.  Lavadome productions have some killer releases coming out this year (Black Hole Deity, Maere, Tsun Tzu).   Bookmark their website and pre-order all of their stuff.

[Visit the band's website]

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