Afterbirth strikes for the third time.
Formed in 1993, but quickly halted after two demos, the project was reborn in 2013 with a compilation, then began creating new tracks. In 2023, Cody Drasser (guitar), David Case (bass, Helmet), Keith Harris (drums) and Will Smith (vocals, Buckshot Facelift, ex-Artificial Brain) announced the release of their third album, In But Not Of on Willowtip Records.
The band also enlisted Colin Marston (Behold the Arctopus, Krallice, Gorguts…) on keyboards, as well as Cory Monster (Thætas, Aberrated, Kevorkianesque) and John Collett (Nightmarer) on vocals.
From the very first track, Tightening The Screws, the band displays a dissonant brutality translated into aggressive yet complex patterns, making this short track very effective, as does Devils With Dead Eyes, which places Old School influences under wild vocal parts. The mix is sure to surprise, whether on the contrast between the two parts or with the pachydermic break, then the band continues to give free rein to its imagination Vomit On Humanity, delivering strange riffs with unexpected melodies. The band’s Prog roots fit relatively well with the onslaught of violence continuing on Autoerotic Amputation, with its piercing harmonics emerging from a thick basis, before returning to pure brutality coupled with screaming guitars on Vivisected Psychopomp. Groovy passages give way to soaring keyboards on Hovering Human Head Drones, where the musicians play a Prog rhythmic before Brutal Death reappears, then Post-Rock elements appear on In But Not Of, the eponymous track, before being shaded by devastating drums and accelerations. It takes a while for vocals to return, but they accompany us all the way through to Angels Feast On Flies, a relatively epic heavy and catchy composition, even allowing some brighter tones to integrate the waves of ferocity that lead us to Time Enough Tomorrow and its mysterious introduction with cosmic overtones. The band will add a few more nuances, but the interlude remains heady and steady without being stifling, while Death Invents Itself will return to sophisticated aggression to turn the short composition into a space for an outpouring of rage, just like Succumb To Life, the final track, where dissonance skilfully rubs shoulders with catchy riffs right to the end.
Whether Afterbirth seems to play the card of confusing complexity at first, we realize that In But Not Of remains coherent in its difference. The album is complex to grasp, but reveals its potential over time.
75/100