Review Summary: Insanity has never sounded so glorious
Infant Annihilator has become a band with huge notoriety after the release of their previous studio album
The Elysian Grandeval Galèriarch (also known as
The EGG), and for good reason. The album was haunting, vicious, ferocious, frightening, disgusting, vile... I could go on... From the lyrical content to the instrumentation, IA gave no f*cks and made the most insane record they could come up with. Tracks
Soil the Stillborn,
Blasphemian, and the monstrous
Behold the Kingdom of the Wretched Undying were (and still are in 2019) some of the most brutally blistering, filth driven, earth-shattering material seen in deathcore up until this point. But as vile and horrid as the material was, there was always something that brought the listener back I feel, whether it be Eddie Pickard's insanely low tuned guitars, Dickie Allen's theatrical, animated yet satanic vocal style, or Aaron Kitcher's inhuman like playing on the drums (although admittedly I am not a drummer so I am not the best at describing what makes Kitcher's drumming so great), you could tell these 3 guys had insane amounts of talent (even if the drums are programmed, I honestly could care less). When the announcement came about their new record
The Battle of Yaldabaoth, I'm sure I'm not the only one in feeling a little... frightened... for how much heavier they will go with
The BOY.
Rest assured, IA did not disappoint with delivering what can only be described as a titanic blow to the senses upon listening to lead single,
Three Bastards. The track begins with everything one could possibly expect. Sweep picking at an ungodly speed, drums towering over the mix like a bloodthirsty behemoth, and Dickie's high pitched yell's. Thankfully however as the track progressed, it didn't feel as dreary, or as murky, or as bleak as
The EGG portrays in spades. Instead on
The BOY, we get some genuinely great riffs, and an extremely high tempo throughout most of the songs (if not every f*cking song), what I feel from
The BOY instead is exhilaration, a healthy dose of adrenaline, and just a generally big ol' fun time, apposed to the
The EGG's absolutely vile imagery. It seems the band has decided to put the absolutely horrid and atrocious themes that were aplenty on
The EGG on the back burner for the new record. This becomes even more apparent when looking at the lyrics, although still fairly disturbing, the lyrics aren't nearly as vomit-inducing as ones seen on the previous record. Instead with
The BOY I feel IA wanted to focus more so on making both the most brutal and also the most enjoyable experience they could possibly make.
On
The BOY I feel Dickie's monstrous vocals are by far the driving force of many of these tracks. Low guttural pig squeals to his high pitched screams, Mr. Allen is in top form in this record and he may be one of the best vocalists that deathcore has ever seen. His animated narrative-driven mid-range vocal style is Dickie's trademark vocal style I feel and this style is here again in a big way which I am very pleased about. All in all Dickie leaves not a single moment on this record to be boring or something predictable from in any type of nature, he always manages to up the ante with a beastly low growl or high pitched shriek. The instrumentation and Allen's vocals work incredibly well in tandem with each other, it is really almost indescribable. When comparing Dickie's vocals to that of
The EGG, I feel it is somewhat similar all things considered, one thing I wished there was more of in this record was some rapid quick vocal lines a la
Soil the Stillborn, although we do get some of that in the title track on
The BOY. Though the guest vocals I feel mostly left the tracks kind of in overkill territory, there is no need to have guest vocal spots when Dickie is pretty much the jack of all trades of every guttural vocal style.
Although the guitar riffs are great to act as a backdrop for Allen's wild, unhinged performance, I wish there was a little more variation within the riffs overall. Most of Pickard's riffs are usually extremely fast guitar tremolo or some really chugging breakdown riffs (although all very pleasing riffs for sure), I just wish that there were some more catchy or ear-catching riff's to keep the attention away from Allen for a little bit (although that's not to say the riffing department is a slouch, far from it). For the majority of the record, Allen is most certainly the star (or the demon god, satan himself) of the show. Tracks
The Kingdom Sitteth Lonely Beneath Thine Hollowed Heavens,
Plaguebearer,
Swinaecologist and the title track are utterly ridiculous in the best way possible. Compiled of incredible fast riffs, inhumanly quick blast beats and drum fills, low screams that sound like my toilet on... a bad night... (if ya know what I mean) and it's all kind of a blast. The tempo is rapidly quick and there are very few moments where attention could even possibly be lost when listening to the glory that is hitting ones eardrums. Although I must also mention
Feast Ov Goreglutton for having hands down the most hilarious lyrics within the entire album, you can only read them for yourself to get the full effect as I couldn't possibly do that masterpiece of lyrics justice within this measly review (also some of the most graphic imagery is in that track).
Infant Annihilator's long-anticipated record
The Battle of Yaldabaoth is not a disappointment in the slightest, from disgustingly brutal passages, insane groove sections, colossal blast beats, and dare I say when it comes down to it; is a generally thrilling, fun time to listen to, it is certainly an experience one would never forget any time soon. Also when speaking of the graphic lyrics in the record, although they are graphic, I feel like they come off more of a joke within this record than they did in
The EGG which is a welcomed addition. Because
The EGG came off as a little too serious a lot of times, it is very refreshing they are using them in a more satirical manner in
The BOY. Even the joking bits in the title track and
Paedophilic Legacy add to the record in a way, to tell their audience, "Hey, we don't take ourselves seriously, you shouldn't either", I enjoy that about the band, they can have fun, but also make some badass music. IA are at the top of the deathcore food chain and this record proves this notion in abundance.
