Artist: Ectoplasma
Album: Inferna Kabbalah
Label: Rotted Life
Release Date: 24/01/2022
Country: Greece
Here is our third article this week looking at Greek death metal releases. We examine well established OSDM act Ectoplasma‘s latest offering Inferna Kabbalah, set for release on January 24th on Rotted Life.
Honestly the intro to the first track alone should tell you everything you need to know about how awesome this album is going to be. Then as soon as that lead riff hits all of your assumptions are confirmed. That’s without even mentioning the killer vocals on offer. The band have really captured everything that made 80s and 90s death metal so great. Unhinged raw vocals, erratic filthy riffs, unrelenting drum work and chunky bass are all awaiting the listener on every track of this album.
The bass intro to track 6 Gruesome Sacred Ogasms and the menacing riffage that follows can be viewed as a perfect cross section of death metal instrumentation. The menace, the filth and the aggression of the genre are on peak display right there without even requiring vocals. But thank god for the vocals because I can’t get enough of the crazed unstable style employed on the album. They range from filthy guttural to powerfully barked to raw shrieked all in the span of 10 seconds and never seem to settle on a single tone or pitch and this continues for the whole album. The added use of occasional layering and some slight echoed and faded effects help to amplify this even further. While the style is very different, the energy and unstable nature remind me a lot of Eric Cutler of Autopsy.
The entire album has a certain maintained level of filth that washes over the listener from start to finish. This essence mixes with the band’s level of aggression and technicality to create a perfect storm of death metal madness. The release doesn’t offer the listener a moment of respite between walls of wailing riffs, pounding drum work and the aforementioned unhinged vocals. So, if you’re looking for an album with mellow segments between the aggression, then this is the wrong album for you.
While the two pre-released singles happen to have been well chosen to showcase what the release is all about, each and every track on the album has something unique to offer. You’ll find unusual time signatures and the inclusion of outside influences sprinkled in throughout the album to varying degrees.
Overall, this is one hell of a release and one that I can see most OSDM fans firmly standing behind. Despite this being the band’s fourth album, they don’t seem even vaguely close to running out of steam or creative energy. I highly suggest the album for anyone who happens to be a fan of extreme metal.
Listen to and order the album:
