2025 is a new year, right? I’d imagine this new year for those of us in the United States is kind of like opening a gift of jars in the mail, thinking “Oh, cool someone sent me these to support my growing interest in canning.” Of course, you open the first one and it’s farts. Why wouldn’t it be? Maybe one of those jars is not full of farts, but Rats of Gomorrah.

I’m not sure where I was going with that, but Rats of Gomorrah and their debut (despite being active under the name Divide for over a decade) Infectious Vermin know where they are. It’s a trip to the old school. It’s not without some unexpected turns on that journey, including the opening track “Swarming Death,” which has some NWOBHM guitars within the sloppy death metal muck. One of those unexpected twists comes in the repeatable chorus of “Run, baby run…” Don’t worry as there are plenty of grave digging riffs and powerful leads to supplement.

A few tracks later is “Narcissus,” a masterclass on old-school, churning death. Vocalist Daniel Stelling has that David Vincent annunciation and pitch with his vocals. It’s brief at barely over 3 minutes, but no less potent. If I’ve not mentioned it before, I’m a fan of pinch harmonics unless they’re overused, and they are tastefully executed.

A bit further into the album is a death doom track called “Night Orbit.” A riff not far removed from being on an Esoteric album starts, which is almost immediately eclipsed by keys, which are in the background for most of the track. I mentioned it’s a death doom track, so of course the other riffs are slow. It’s mostly a fist-pounding anthem (not fist-pumping as that is different). That feeling quickly goes away, though.

I try to keep my reviews relatively brief, so I might as well skip to the last track, “Vat of Acid.” Here the vocals are perhaps at their most vicious. While there are a couple of brief slow sections, the one beginning around 2 ½ minutes in, has lightly distorted guitars, but doesn’t take a lot of time. Otherwise, it’s a beat down to end a heavy, modern, yet old-school death metal scorcher.

If there’s one critique, the album being 46 minutes is it. Sometimes there’s just too much of a good thing. It’s not a slog by any means. It’s more of an attention span issue. I can and have listened to the album on repeat multiple times, which is something I rarely do. Otherwise, there’s no issue. I can’t imagine anyone who enjoys the early ’90s Swedish Death Metal sound not feeling the same about Infectious Vermin. Thankfully it’s no jar of farts.

 

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