Genesis to Nemesis

Album Review

Infernaeon are a Florida-based death metal band who use synths to add some extra darkness and majesty to their music. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't; the all-keyboard intro "Into the N.O.X." sounds like the score to a forgotten John Carpenter movie from the '80s, but when the synths are added as background elements to songs like "First of the Fallen" or "Legacy of Kane," the effect is more powerful. There are still problems with the record as a whole, though. Track titles like "The Scar of David" and "Immaculate Deception" give the game away, lyrically speaking; it's just more by-rote anti-Christian sentiment, as though there's something remotely shocking or even interesting about that in 2010. The drum sound is terrible; it's mechanistic and far too clean, without the power extreme metal demands. Some of the guitar riffs are OK, but none leap out and stick in the listener's mind. The album's one redeeming quality is a track on which they let their guard down slightly and exhibit a sense of humor: it's a cover of Metallica's "Creeping Death," with guest vocals from GWAR frontdemon Oderus Urungus. Not only is the song itself better than anything Infernaeon write on their own here, Oderus' vocal is as hilariously over-the-top as ever, giving it the dose of absurdity it requires.