Infinite Regress

Japan’s deathgrind outlet Defiled has been churning out full-lengths since 1999, and 2020 marked the release of their sixth full-length, “Infinite Regress,” an album that proved that a band isn’t automatically good just by being a veteran. Well, I guess that was a lesson learnt through plenty of other, larger acts as well.

There should be a rule against short, ambient intro tracks because they take away from an important feature of the record: the first impression. This pointless, 23-second “song” preceded “Divide and Conquer,” one of the album’s best tracks. If anything, this should have been the first impression with its wild, layered riffs and tumultuous drumming. The drumming really solidified not only this track but also the whole record.

“Tragedy,” one of the other highlights, followed suite. This was what I usually call a “full” song, as it was five minutes long and sat among a bunch of one- to two-minute deathgrind songs. The track had an ability to progress smoothly through different riffs, making another good impression. However, it also set a high bar for the rest of the record, a bar that was met by “So Blind” and “Masses in Chaos” but was not met by any other track.

The album took a nosedive when it reached “Centuries.” This song was, to put it simply, difficult to listen to. Based around two riffs, both of which were, for lack of a better word, dumb, it went back and forth for four minutes. One riff, the very first one in the song, was based around a horrifyingly stupid melody and had not one redeeming quality. The one thing that made this track remotely listenable was the drumming, as Keisuke Hamada was able to adapt to whatever was happening.

There was not a moment when the album climbed back to where it was at the beginning. The album got slightly better after “Centuries,” but it did not get any more appealing. Each track was riddled with poor writing due to a lack of transitioning and riffs that just didn’t belong together.

“Infinite Regress” was a tragedy. Even the production was poor, as there was only one moment I recall hearing the bass. If anything, the good songs (and the highlights really were remarkable) should have been placed onto an EP while the rest were discarded.

I’ve always enjoyed Japanese metal, they just do it that little bit different and have a way of cutting through the huge amount of monotonous releases I hear each week. Infinite Regress is a well rounded album that is a smooth blend of old school death metal and technical death metal. It discards all of the new ideas currently circulating in tech death (such as the rise of deathcore and synth prominence) and focuses on bringing the old ideas into their framework of intensive mathy timing. The result is a pleasure to listen to as it sounds familiar but also grooves different. It’s well crafted.

I don’t make music enough myself to fully grasp time signatures and the like, but when I speak of timing I mean Defiled’s ability to execute sudden and unified palm mutes and pauses as a band. The music doesn’t just constantly flow riff to riff, there’s interruptions and corruptions of the riffs. It’s a kind of a disassembly of great riffs that other bands would simply love too much to not let them play out for a minute at a time. It’s always moving and evolving, by killing their own riffs they create something monstrous and interesting. I’d love to see the mosh pit translation on this one, there’s room for windmilling and circle pits, but there’s also such sudden swings in tempo that I’m sure some people will be wondering what they are supposed to be doing.

The vocals are great, just where they should be on this record. Every time I expect vocals to enter the track they do so perfectly and they’re always what I want them to be. Guttural as fuck and capable of keeping up with the furious rhythms of the instruments. This is where a huge aspect of the OSDM comes through because the vocals are mixed in such a way that’s very mid tempo and pitch. They don’t come too forward unless there’s a specific line delivery that calls for a bit more clarity.

The lyrical themes deal heavily in societal control issues – There’s a lot of frustration about the general population being unable to see the completely fucked power dynamic that controls our lives and thus unwillingly becoming pawns allowing for the machine to progress. This is highly relatable to most places in the world, some more than others. The lyrics are written with only a couple of words per line to allow for the abrupt and forceful delivery of the lines.

My favorite track is “Aftermath” which has some awesome bass play, particularly during a breakdown where the bass comes in with incredible speed and an usually high tone with short bursts of energy. This is a seriously tight album where each member contributes equally before being fed into the mixing process which handled their work well and has done them justice. Even when everyone is playing roughly the same thing, there’s quirks in the playing that make each moment count and worth hearing. There’s no discourse and no regurgitation, there’s just real fucking musicianship from a creative band. I’ve listened to it many times now and there’s no hint of Defiled running out of ideas, I half suspect a smaller release in the near future.

I’ve had my eyes on this one for a while due to the cover art circulating on the socials. It’s the right aesthetic for this sound with not only skulls but those sludgy toxic greens and blues. This piece was done by Wes Benscoter who has done a lot of cover work in the past, you might remember his work recently on Thy Messenger by Vader released in 2019. It’s his signature that finalises the album as a competitive death metal album in the current global metal arena, online and offline.

Every facet of Infinite Regress is sturdy. I highly recommend it to any death metal fan, I’m a big fan of the Japanese underground scene and a new fan of Defiled.

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