With 'Obscure Rituals of Death and Destruction', Chileans Inferis release a violent vortex of black magick death metal over unwary metalheads. Being their fifth release overall, and the second full length album to date, this band who formed back in 1998 aren't too swift in working. Well, maybe the quality compensates the "lost" time?

Inferis can conjure up diabolical and contentious feeling here. Suitable riffs are hammered in, and lots of intense thrashing occur, too. There's true 80s to early 90s vibe to them, and are influenced by South and North American styles. The music is mostly fast or very fast. Blast beats are often heard, probably more than any slower drumming. This hellish metal inferno is at times dragged into more atmospheric grounds via the open string guitar playing, and the melody work groping for evil moods. Vomiting demonic, as well as more throat-lacerating growling vocals fit in perfectly, not forgetting more hymn-like voices on the closer. The band utilize some sound effects on the intro, as well as on the album's only melodic song, acoustic/bass guitar instrumental 'Leviathan's Dream (We Will Wake You up with Our Prayers)'. The latter one, in its 6 minutes of duration, is just too different a song for this album, no matter how well it manages to captivate a listener with its perversely beautiful mood.

Sadly, the album appears to be much more drastically inconstant in its quality. The band sound tight when doing anything else but blast beating. During these parts, the drummer is clearly struggling; he's trying to keep pace and therefore he's hitting about anything he possibly could hit. It makes the fastest bits feel sloppy, while they hardly are so. I mean he's hitting something in tempo anyway! On 'Visions from an Apocalyptic Environment', which is one of the most chaotic blasting songs here, the drummer clearly exhausts before the song ends. Also, the compositions feel unstable. It often sounds like song parts suddenly changing in a totally wrong moment. And the points where the band go from a slower tempo to blast beating are worst. I can't find an impeccable composition on this album. Do not get me wrong; I can listen to very chaotic music, but this simply feels too illegible to me. In the end, it's just too samey (minus the instrumental).

Inferis get points for their energetic performances, minus the blast beat drumming. This album is packed with exploding dark matter. The album also sounds good for most of the time; very meaty and distorted, and definitely on the bassy side. It is great to hear how the bass guitar backs the guitar, like a rhythm guitar indeed. However, the kick drums steal too much space from other elements, again making the blast beat bits annoying. The guitar sounds rusty and hell, no matter if it's about riffing or chaotic solo parts.

If you're looking for some very violent, chaotic death metal with black mood in it, Inferis is offering just that. It's too chaotic for my liking, because I couldn't find that many working compositions on the album. But this can be called as "extreme", believe me! It's your choice, anyway.

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
01/14/2014 17:53