Review: Inhumation – Degradation of Existence
Existence is futile.
So back in the day I used to be cool. I played in a band. I played all the shows. Recorded all the albums. I even went on tour once or twice for less than a week at a time. I know what you’re thinking, “Bob, you used to be a rock star?!” Alas, it’s true. But after years of life on the road, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Believe it or not doing mountains of blow, drinking gallons of alcohol, and having constant, meaningless sex with insanely beautiful women just gets old after a while. Sure, it sounds great on paper, but then I discovered the simple pleasures of life: meal planning, working a repetitive job, and sweater shopping to expand my ever-growing collection of cardigans and pullovers. It’s still a life to be jealous of, I just have a mortgage and care about interest rates more than I used to. Did you know it’s an awful time to buy a house right now? Good thing I’m locked in at less than 3%. Do you know how much money you can save just by refinancing your…
Okay, okay. I think I’ve made my point. There was a time when I was hip and with it. And during that time I crossed paths with the band Inhumation on more than one occasion. Watching them perform was always a treat. They were doing the death metal thing when I was just learning what death metal was. It was awesome to behold, and more awesome to learn that they are still at it. More than a decade in, Inhumation are still releasing music. Degradation of Existence is some of their best work to date, and I’m excited to share it with you even if I’m a few weeks late to the party.
Feast your ears! A catchy 6-track EP that’s reminiscent of Immolation but with a little less atmosphere and a little more get up and go. This one is gonna get your head bobbing. It moves, it grooves, and yet somehow stays firmly rooted in death metal. It kinda blows me away that this band sounds so original without blending more genres together. Sure it’s technical, but doesn’t wade so far into that pool to where I’d call it tech death. The song structures are progressive, but it isn’t prog metal. There’s some melody present, but it’s not melodeath either. The most defining feature seems to be the syncopated riffing, where the drums accent everything the guitar is doing to perfection. The rhythms are fun and bouncy. I’d argue there might be some deathcore influences, but the band never hangs onto anything close to a breakdown for more than a few seconds before moving on into the next section, each more evil and grinding than the last.
Simply put, there’s a lot to dig into on this record. If you’re an active listener, you’ll be rewarded with tons of accents, fills, pauses, and time signature changes. If you just want to check out for a while, the songs groove hard as fuck without the need to overanalyze. At this point, I’ve listened to the record 4 or 5 times, yet I don’t have a damn thing memorized. It’s familiar, but I’m still being surprised by it. Trust me when I say, this one is worth your time. Now excuse me while I spend the next several hours shopping for work-appropriate, long-sleeve, fall attire. It’s below 70 degrees out there and I’m shivering!
5/5 Flaming Toilet ov Hell
Degradation of Existence released on August 1, 2023. Check it out on Bandcamp!
