Replicant continues its journey with a third album.
Two and a half years after their last contact, the American band led by Michael Gonçalves (bass/vocals, Windfaerer, ex-Grimus), Peter Lloyd (guitar, ex-Dystrophy), James Applegate (drums, Windfaerer, ex-Framework) and most recently Itay Keren (guitar/vocals, Afar, Ossein, Windfaerer), unveil Infinite Mortality, their third album, on Transcending Obscurity Records.
Acid Mirror kicks off the album with heaviness and dissonance, including ever more jerky patterns to its controlled chaotic riffs. The vocal parts reinforce the aggression, which adopts a few Prog patterns to make us believe in a semblance of calm before dropping moshparts or a tortured solo, then strange samples lead us to Shrine to the Incomprehensible, which wastes not a single second to trample us in its turn while including disturbing harmonics. The devastating groove combined with furious screams creates a real oppression which the band uses to annihilate any hope of quietude, before letting Orgasm of Bereavement strike with a new unpredictable rhythm that alternates massive explosions and vivid Old School influences. The track is relatively short, unlike Reciprocal Abandonment, which takes the time to develop its abrasive guitars before integrating raw, stunning strikes or catchy patterns, but also a short pause before igniting again on the final that leads us to SCN9A. This one-minute interlude still finds a way to build anguish before moving on to the aggressive Pain Enduring and its ominous passages quickly overtaken by suffocating violence, with dark harmonics blending in naturally. The solos are slightly more soaring, in contrast to Nekrotunnel, where wrenching leads accompany first the savage vocal parts and then a more imposing approach, before the track ends to let the short Dwelling on the Threshold molest us. The song still incorporates some intriguing hazy vocal parts but lets Planet of Skin, a nine-minute composition, pin us down with as disturbing as grandiose sounds, recreate that menacing feeling of permanent insecurity again as the riffs surge over us with Prog patterns and Death/Doom influences before releasing us.
Infinite Mortality is like plunging into a pool of dark sludge populated by deformed aggressive beings whose sole aim is to hurl themselves at you in a haphazard fashion. Replicant perfectly captures this horror.
85/100