After two EPs, Infested Angels unveil their album.
With the help of Art Gates Records, Andrew Bryan (guitar/vocals) and Patryk Kaczmarek (drums) bring Threnodies to Eternal Despair to life.
No Time for Despair kicks off the hostilities with a rather majestic approach that leaves plenty of room for ambient guitars and keyboards, but never denies the violence of the rhythm, almost constantly trampling us underfoot. As for the vocals, the vocalist stays within the spectrum between Black and Death, which fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the track, which quickly moves on to To Never Return and its heavier, even more melancholic hints. A few touches of clean vocals tint the choruses with a veil of heady quietude, but it’s in violence that the composition is forged, just like Euphony of Dismay, which gets off to a gentle start but ignites with no turning back. The charge becomes more epic with the orchestrations, recalling obvious Swedish influences, and then Dread Incorporeal shows us just how aggressive the band also knows how to be, using raw rhythms to counterbalance its most hypnotic melodies, such as the passage in clear sound. A moment of gentleness comes with Fields of Ashes, where the guitar takes our spirit away in its quietude, before Control of Fear brings us back to violence with its jerky rhythm infused with ferocious Death Metal. The track eventually fades out on its own before the band welcomes Nathaniel Coxon on piano to give a gentler touch to the start of The Lost Battle, followed by their usual darkness into which they inject chilling harmonics at full speed. The pianist returns to guide us through Misanthropic Elegy, a track that returns to the pure brutality of Death Metal while retaining its gloomy atmosphere, as on Darkness Envelops, where the vociferations become more cavernous, marking the track’s macabre influences. Suffering and Retribution gets off to a fairly martial start, but the sound flares up fairly regularly, offering chopped-up patterns but a still imposing approach before Nathaniel Coxon stains Into the Night’s Embrace with his crystalline melancholy, here marking the end of the album with an unsuspected gentleness.
Two bonus tracks are added to the previous eleven, first The Bastard Will Materialise, which puts us back at the center of a visceral fury where blast and frenetic riffs meet, even giving rise to a chaotic solo, then Unholy Decay, which gives us hope for a moment of quietude, which ultimately doesn’t last and gives way to fury to close the album.
Although deeply rooted in Death Metal, Infested Angels know how to add a touch of darkness to give Threnodies to Eternal Despair its macabre atmosphere. A real success for a young band!
90/100