Infection - Acrotomophile Mutilator

INFECTION - Acrotomophile Mutilator (Self financed - 12"LP 2015)

And now something interesting. I just received a vinyl from Peruvian band Infection, who self released their second album “Acrotomophile Mutilator”. And damn, just show me how many bands out there are able to release 12” full length vinyl by themselves? I don’t think there are many. It surely is very unusual to see this. But I think it is cool that Infection has decided to finance it all by themselves, as it means they believe in their music. Also, getting a 12” vinyl for review is something what previously happened to me maybe three or four times, so a big thank you need to go to Antonio Palacios, who contacted me for this review. No idea how limited this LP is, but it’s just awesome to have a copy of it.

So, let’s check “Acrotomophile Mutilator”. The artwork for this album gives quite obvious idea what the music will be like. A dude with a chainsaw, torturing three naked chikas? Ha, that can only mean one thing: brutal death metal! And so is Infection. I am happy though that it’s more like an old school brutal death band, like for example in the vein of Cannibal Corpse, rather than that ultra / unbearable brutality of acts like Devourment, which I am not a fan of at all. “Acrotomophile Mutilator” is quite a good listen. Yes, there are many fragments, where I can hear strong influence from Cannibal Corpse, also of bands like Dying Fetus for example, but Infection music is quite diverse and you can be surprised to hear for example some more melodic riffs or leads here and there. At least I was, as it doesn’t happen often in brutal death metal bands to have some clear melodic parts. But I guess it’s all because Infection doesn’t force themselves to only sound as the most brutal band out there. Or let’s put it this way: there are some songs like “Feasting with Faeces” (sick 40 seconds!), which are more focused on the brutal and insane side of this music. But a lot of this music is a nice blend of brutality and viciousness with slower, sometimes quite technical, sometimes even a bit melodic playing, so the band is very flexible, when speaking of their influences and the way they want to play. And this diversity is definitely something what makes “Acrotomophile Mutilator” such a strong album, in my opinion.

Let’s take such track like “When Children Murder” – what a fantastic opener it is! There’s a lot of that technical and aggressive Suffocation meets Malevolent Creation style death metal, but at the same time you’ll hear melodic leads, some slower parts. So much is going on in this one song and the riffs are just superb. It could have easily been a song from any classic records of the bands I mentioned, as well as such Aeon and you would not feel it lacks anything, speaking of quality. “Tetrodotoxin” may feel as one of these more vicious and extreme tracks, filled with blasts and technicality alike to Cannibal Corpse recent records. The band continues with that intensity  with “First-Degree Murder” and other tracks on side A, but such “First-Degree Murder” and “Psychopath” did allow a small dose of harmony to appear here and there, between the maelstrom of blasts and technical, what makes the music more dynamic and more interesting.

Side B basically keeps that high quality level intact through the major part, with maybe couple of less effective song - “Feasting with Faeces” for example is pretty weak in my opinion. But such “Devouring the Living” is really awesome, even though it’s an instrumental song, but hey! What a great riffage, rhythm… it can blast, but then there’s this sudden change of direction somewhere in the mid part, into almost kind of thrash. That is something what I did not expect to hear. And “Regurgitating Human Parts” is also a real standout track here, brutal and very, very nice. Production wise there’s also not much I can moan about; it’s very decent sound, not perfect, but good enough.

Oh, damn, one more thing; if you want to see the most fuckin disgusting video ever – which I have no idea why wasn’t banned on YouTube yet ahaha – then go to Infection profile and watch “Feasting with Faeces”. The title says it all. Enjoy. But don’t watch it while having a breakfast haha. You were warned! Another interesting fact is that all lyrics are in Spanish (even though the titles are English, which is quite weird). Not so usual thing to hear.

Standout tracks: “When Children Murder”, “First-Degree Murder”, “Regurgitating Human Parts”

Final rate: 70/100

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