Review Summary: Brutal Death Metal that is several notches higher than the norm
Inhuman Remnants from Australia has only recently released its second EP titled ‘Inattentional Blindness’. This arachnoid-obsessed brutal death metal band is breaking conventions, completely eschewing the typical Suffocation or Cannibal Corpse school of music and is concocting its own brand of death metal. The music is extremely catchy, riff-oriented instead of emphasizing on speed or brutality, and there’s even room given for melodies to work their magic. It sounds too good to be true. What you have here essentially is brutal death metal that is also progressive in its thinking. Littered in the album are soaring leads and melodies alternating with massive deep growls and that’s not all – there’s this ridiculously fast drum machine-esque blasting which beggars belief. It’s reminiscent of The Berzerker in its insane speed and consistency. But the drummer doesn’t overdo it and saves this kind of eight-legged double bass drum blasting for special moments. The music is a complex beast to understand despite clear emphasis given on all aspects. There’s so much happening and in an overblown way almost, that it’s shocking. Plus there are those thunderous thuds, amplifying the earth-trembling heaviness this band possesses. All put together, this is a fearsome album. All four songs are varied and have their own special moments coupled with memorable riffing. Usually it’s either one aspect – those standout moments or distinct and catchy riffing – but Inhuman Remnants manages to take the best of all worlds, quite literally, and puts it all together on this stunning little EP.
It’s certainly forward-thinking and better than the underrated first EP ‘Anathema’. It remains to be seen how effective this band can be on a full length platform – that will be the real test of the music’s consistency which the band needs to work on. The fluctuating heaviness shouldn’t be the case normally and you’d have brutality going hand-in-hand with variations including leads like Gortuary from US, but Inhuman Remnants doesn’t let your attention wane or lose the appeal because it’s constantly up to something phenomenal. It’s simply surprisingly how casually it incorporates all of the elements and takes it a notch higher than the standard bands in terms of speed (momentarily however), melodies and lastly, heaviness. If only it can retain the brutality while exploring the music and its myriad facets, it would truly be astonishing. This is no simple album – much effort seems to have gone in making the music stand out in all possible ways, and it does.
