The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution

Infant Annihilator, everyone’s favorite band. This is some of the best deathcore out there for sure, straight up. As the bothersome name suggests, the music surely does suit the band's name. This is absolute insanity and you'll definitely remember this album once you hear it.

Obviously we may as well start out with the main aspect - the drums. I don't even know where to begin. They're balls fast, bursting with incredible amounts of energy, filled to the brim with blast after blast after blast. There are barely any breaks from the sheer intensity of the drumming. The drums have everything you could want, they're too good! Sure as hell is a technical deathcore band, the drums don't miss a single beat or measure and never go off time. They follow the guitar and other instruments well and as needed. Though they're relentless and don't give the listener much of a break, it's never TOO much. That sounds pretty ironic, but it's the truth. Despite the constant and relentless blasting and speed, the drums do have some variety and lead you out on a nice trip throughout the music until it ends.

Pretty much the biggest talk that revolves around this record is about how the drumming is "fake", "computerized", and whatever else. They may or may not be fake, I don't know, but I really just don't give a fuck at all about the legitimacy of the drums. I've seen Aaron Kitcher's playing on a real set, looks real and fluid to me. I don't even really feel like saying this, but I should. Doesn't matter if the drums are computerized or are over the top crazy, if the outcome is good and I enjoy the way it sounds, it's a win for me. And that's 100% the case here. LOVE the drumming on this album. The snare has a distinct sound and the rest of the set doesn't sound too computery, has a natural enough sound to me, but again; that doesn't matter if the outcome is good. The drumming is easily the best aspect of this album aside from the vocals.

The guitars pretty much have the same characteristics as the drums. Crazy, random, and unpredictable. While again maintaining those attributes, the guitar parts still flow through the music greatly and is a total eargasm. The guitar has a peak "deathcore" sound and tone, your regular deep - dark-esque chug, (think of Whitechapel’s first two albums), and it's nice. It's your average deathcore sound but with a slight dark and muddy twist, and it sounds great! The guitars don't hold back aside from the "core" sound and the addictive thick chugs. There's some songs that have insane tapping, some sweeping, wankery (in a good way, it’s so satisfying), and even more. The first song off the album starts out with a satisfying chug slam riff, and it's so mesmerizing. It’s very groovy and gets my head banging! I really love the chugging on this album, it lasts out for a little then comes back and hooks you in with swift and sudden rambunctiousness. “Flayed and Consumed” featuring Lucas Mann is awesome as hell too. He adds to the already existing chaos of this record with his trademark pinball machine/computer/video game fuckery guitar parts he writes. Stuff like that I simply love, sudden parts where the random fuckery and creativity just burst out in your face all of a sudden, really good stuff. My main likes regarding the guitars is the tone, the variety it has, the fact that the parts are very entertaining, and the fact that it lets you know it's there and is functioning, and that it'll keep on being active till everything is finished. Beauty.

The bass is present even though you primarily hear the drums and guitars. It's definitely hearable and doesn't get fully mixed in with the other instruments, so great job on that. On some tracks the bass will stand out on certain sections, allowing you to hear it even more clearly; and it's some of the most satisfying stuff ever. The bass is played excellently, is heavy, and truly does sound like a natural, thick bass for a fact.

Dan Watson, the vocal mastermind behind this phenomenal album does an EXCELLENT job at delivering vocals. The album mainly consists of juicy, deep, monster sounding gutturals. It sounds like a monster demanding something, shouting and shouting until he gets what he wants. Honestly the best way to describe it. The gutturals are amazing and absolutely perfect, Dan definitely knows what he's doing. Now we got the highs, the screams. If he's that good at gutturals then he's gotta be good at highs (screaming) too, and he sure is! The highs are flawless actually, and it never sounds weak or underdeveloped. The screams go well with the music, and when Dan holds out for a long time, it's so so awesome. There's no lack, no fault, no disadvantage when it comes to this man's vocals. Dan is one of the best, if not THE best Deathcore vocalist, and that sure as hell is an absolute fact. Hail this man, he was great live when I saw Enterprise Earth in 2019, and will forever be one of the deathcore goats and general goats.

Every song is so awesome. I wouldn't say there's any song that's bad at all or anything; nothing here is bad, not a single entire song sucks. There definitely are tracks that are better than others, but this is a great album all the way through. And that's what I like about this album. Everything is just awesome as fuck and keeps me entertained and happy. An absolute delicious eargasm, my god.

I absolutely love how chaotic and (in a good way), idiotic this record is. It sounds like you've been grabbed by the leg by a giant gorilla, and that thing is hanging you upside down and flailing your body around everywhere while simultaneously running down an imploding mountain and screaming in your face. Imagine that but for 55 minutes straight. Absolute peak deathcore here. This is awesome, heavy, and CATCHY.

In conclusion, The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution is furious, awesome, catchy, and indeed brutal. The instrumentation is extremely entertaining, the drums are rambunctious, the guitars sound pretty much perfect and have an awesome variety in their sound and playing, and to top it all off, you have the brutal meaty lows followed by the shrieking loud highs provided wonderfully by Dan Watson. Every aspect lives up to its purpose. This is most certainly one of the best deathcore albums ever made, definitely an essential album that every deathcore fan should know. Even if you're not a deathcore fan, check this out and give it a try. And to the people who endlessly shit on Infant Annihilator; enough with the corny hate. We get it. Only chad individuals realize that this band absolutely FUCKS.

I’ll say this forever and ever - this is peak deathcore. A must listen!!!

Favorite/Best/Standout Tracks:
Decapitation Fornication (best track on the album)
Cuntcrusher
I. Infant Annihilator

I first heard this album back when I began getting into heavier music. This was in the year 2016. If I wrote a review for this album back then, it would've gotten a higher score, but now we have 2 other Infant Annihilator full-length albums to compare this to. Let me tell you, this is probably their worst album by comparison. Why would that be? The short and exaggerated answer would be that it's basically just djent with power chords and blast beats. The long answer is exactly the reason we have the review section on Metal Archives. So let's get right into it.

The album opens up with a baby crying, which is already pretty unoriginal if you ask me. After that, it gets into the actual music. The album is musically quite impressive. No, seriously. It's very technical and well thought out. However, the guitar tone kind of ruins it. Because of the fact that they utilize the lower strings more often than the high ones, they should be using a bit more treble and a bit less low end. Otherwise, it just ends up sounding like djent, because there's too much low end in the tone. It may not seem like a problem at first, but when this problem is present throughout the entire album, it's pretty obvious and becomes hard to ignore.

The drumming is very well done. Honestly, it's probably the best part of the album. I don't care that it implements triggers, as long as it sounds good. The guest spots are very good as well. There are two guest vocalists and a guest guitar solo. Every single one of them do a perfect job. Especially the guest guitar solo, which is performed by Lucas Mann of Rings Of Saturn. The main vocalist, Dan Watson, is a pretty decent vocalist. However, he doesn't sound unique at all. For example, when I was first getting into deathcore, I couldn't tell his voice apart from other vocalists. Plus, he is nowhere near as good as Dickie Allen when it comes to harsh vocals.

The lyrics aren't given much thought. They sound like the type of lyrics you would hear in a goregrind album. Because of this, the album has little to no atmosphere. I believe that is the main reason this album is their worst by comparison. Their second album, The Elysian Grandeval Galeriach, relied heavily on atmosphere and absolutely nailed it. I haven't listened to the third album enough to decide if the atmosphere is as good as the second album, but most of the problems within this album are gone in the second and third albums.

I say this all the time. Just because something is not particularly good, doesn't mean you can't find enjoyment in it. This is a great example of that. The album's instrumentation is well done, but many other problems end up ruining that. Regardless, I still love this album very much, as it was the first deathcore album I had ever heard. If these problems weren't so prevalent, I'd give a higher rating.

The day that this album was released was a sad one indeed for the world of heavy music. Its style, called "technical deathcore" under official definitions and called "shit" by people with more than a few functioning brain cells, wasn't necessarily a new idea at the time, having already been stuffed into the modern metal world by Rings of Saturn a few years earlier. Yet, its release and subsequent popularity made concrete the idea that sonic brutality was all that mattered. On a musical level, it wasn't necessary to do much. And if one had the desire to make it sound as though they were doing a lot, they didn't actually have to be able to do it, because computers and studio tricks were on their side. Aspiring young metal musicians and br00tality junkies always on the lookout for the ultimate ear-pummeling took Infant Annihilator's success to heart, and the impact was felt far and wide across the metal landscape. Overly "technical", overly br00tle and overly enhanced bands became more common than ever, and a new generation of metalheads was born who were fooled into thinking that Infant Annihilator really was the band that they sounded like. To boil it all down to a single thought, if you have problems with modern metal, it's likely that you'll find many of your problems in Infant Annihilator and their debut album, "The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution".

Adorned with horribly clichéd inverted cross imagery and shock-value song titles that destroy quite a bit of the band's credibility before the play button is even pressed, the sonic material (the term "music" doesn't necessarily apply) of this album is stereotypical -core in its lowest form. It constantly tries to accomplish far too much with far too little. In other words, attempts at being "heavy" and "br00tle" are made, and most succeed - but at the cost of making the musical material utterly banal and without value. The entire record plays as one gigantic breakdown, with each new section bringing more noteless dissonant chugs and non-metallic slams that, by all definitions, are not technical. Oh yes, they are "heavy", but they aren't technical or impressive. They're there to act as another percussion instrument, and to have as much of an impact as possible without actually doing something musically or bothering to be anything but cookie-cutter. Occasionally, a random sweep will pop out of nowhere, and while the speed of it may be impressive, the notes played in it are not, for it is invariably at least seventy-five percent diminished scale. The deathcore guitar stereotypes are epitomized here, and they would only become more common after this record's release. Listen to any deathcore release that came out this decade, and you'll find that, on some level, it abuses noteless chugs to induce listeners to bang their heads and wave their alcoholic drinks in the air, and/or abuses diminished scale sweeps as something that can be pulled out on the fly to make the guitarist sound like he has more talent than he actually does.

Attempts are made to disguise the hack guitarist with some of the worst drumming (programming) ever to be laid down in a digital sequencer, courtesy of the infamous Aaron Kitcher. Kitcher (or the machine that he's controlling) has three modes: groove, breakdown, and hyperblast. Hyperblast mode is self-explanatory: laughably fast snare and kick hits that can’t even begin to be played as they are by a human, fast enough to the point where they can be measured better in Hertz than beats per minute. The other two modes are self-explanatory as well, laced with occasional buzz-saw fills and improvisations. Of course, each piece has been triggered and time-corrected beyond belief. And some people actually think that Kitcher PLAYS the drum parts that appear on IA albums! Further proof that this type of sound can only be enjoyed by the dumbest of the dumb. The drumming negates the record's authenticity faster than desert dirt absorbs water, and also provides damning evidence as to why the band doesn’t perform live. While it may SOUND br00tle, it only serves the purpose of attempting to counter the vapid guitars with sickeningly artificial technicality, creating a massive contradiction that furthers the album's self-induced euthanasia.

Reportedly, this album was recorded in just a week or so, and that couldn't come across as more transparent in the final result. It's a huge polished deathcore turd that makes every half-assed stab at being br00tle that it can, clips hard, and becomes more of a joke than a real musical project. It's an exploitation of every negative deathcore stereotype, and every metal stereotype, that you've ever heard. It's so low-effort that the lyrics aren't even given a coherent structure. Although it is more metal than just about anything else sonically, there are no words derogatory enough to express just how awful it is on a musical level. You can rush to Infant Annihilator's defense all you want. Say that it's a joke and that the music isn't meant to be taken seriously all you want. If it's such a joke, then why are they regarded by so many as a legitimate musical act? This is no Chainsaw Penis or Car Door Dick Smash we're talking about. Why are not one - but two - of this band's albums at the top of the top-selling technical deathcore releases list on Bandcamp? Why is their style so widely imitated? The band might have intended themselves to be a joke, but nobody got the joke. Which must mean that it's a pretty terrible joke.

Why does this band sound like themselves, though? Why did they stand out in the crowd enough to be noticed as much as they were, and still are? They were among the first to dare to dumb metal music down to this point where it's barely even metal anymore, yet still attempt to push it across as bone-crushingly heavy and technical. It may be heavy, but none of it is catchy, none of it is interesting, none of it is even necessarily technical. Every track sounds exactly the same: an endless breakdown with false-chord grunting that's so unremarkable and interchangeable that it hardly deserves a mention. After listening to one or two tracks on YouTube (and cringing at the accompanying music videos), perhaps it may seem like enough of a novelty to occasionally revisit. But, when an entire album of the stuff is made and becomes popular, it’s no longer a novelty or a joke. It’s an embarrassment. Not just to the band (whether they like it or not), but to metal as a whole. What kind of image does this put out there for metal music? An image of artificial technicality and music videos that are little more than elaborate internet memes. “Metal? Isn’t that the kind of music where bands cheat in the studio excessively and the band members pretend to perform anal sex on each other?” Apparently, it is, because countless other bands who wanted a piece of fame drew their inspiration from this band and its genre, realizing how cool you could make your music sound without doing a lot. It came to pass that any hope of modern metal regaining credibility was lost. And that loss was speeded along by groups like this one. Infant Annihilator, their debut album, and all other albums remotely related to it are all massive metallic fallacies, and should be treated as such, not as the br00tality wells that they are hailed as. What a disgrace.

I believe my favorite memes among the Internet are the ones that depict a child unlocking a chest revealing a image of him holding a vinyl copy of this album with the phrase "Do you remember your first time?" adorned atop the picture, or the meme that shows a child presenting a copy of this album to his grandfather with his elder's immediate response being "Sit down you little faggot. I'm going to tell you a great story." It's because well.. those memes perfectly illustrate my memories with this record. This was hyped up, brought out and delivered perfectly at the best time it possibly could. Sure it falls a little short these days and it doesn't have the impact it did if you heard this back in 2012, but at the same time I'm convinced my entire motivation to even type this review is coming solely looking through my rose-tinted glasses at this thing.

When Infant Annihilator came out, the phrase "internet band" was still a fresh relatively unknown/unheard of thing. Yeah, I mean sure Slice the Cake were slicing things up at least 2 years prior to IA's arrival, and Malodorous were were doing it even earlier. But there was still a charm to do, see and hear these two British kids who wanted nothing more than to make sweet, sweet breakdowns while dry humping each other in a forest with a deranged sociopathic American vocalist bellowing away his lyrical attacks on infantcide and baby rape across this 50-minute runtime. I was a teenager when this came out. Prior to this I worshiped Whitechapel, and fiendishly obsessed over Suicide Silence and Carnifex and this was the very peak point when I was beginning to start my trek into brutal death metal with bands like Disgorge, Guttural Secrete and Putrid Pile coming on my radar. A aesthetic blend of everything I loved at the time all coming together at once was my literal dream come true. This album was about to become my life. 12/12/12 (the album's release date) was adorned on my calendar as I fiendishly awaited this album's release and I can't fucking make the memories go away of what I did the moment I opened Facebook and saw that this was finally released...
Anyways enough talk of my precious nostalgia, let's talk about the music.

There's two ways I could do this review honestly. The first way could be how I heard it/listened to it/experienced it in 2012, or my other way could be how it feels to listen to this right now. As I write this it is now currently September 2019. Seven years really has made a difference and impact on this album and I'm not saying this album has aged poorly, I'm simply stating that my passion for The Palable Leprosy of Polution has more or less been err... tainted being that I'm more of a grown up now than I was then. Opening licks such as the A Serbian Film-referencing "New Born Porn" instrumental, "Devotion to the Child Rape Syndicate" or the 2/4/6-track trilogy simply just don't carry that same impact or punch as they did reading the grotesque shocking lyrics as this current age surrounding it does. Gore, misogyny, murder and rape in brutal music has been overdone and a lot has changed these 7 years. Perhaps it's desensitization, either way with that portion of the experience missing it does definitely hold a factor here.

Breakdowns, breakdowns, breakdowns!! This album has LOADS of them; almost appearing in triples on every single song. Whenever you go into one riff, it’s not long before another chuggy section follows. It’s in those parts where the 2019 wear starts to show due to the fact that it feels overdone and excessive. Breakdowns feel tasteful and fun and exciting when used sparsely. If you take MDMA every day eventually MDMA isn’t going to be special to you anymore, it’s going to be your normal. The same thing goes for these breakdowns. Halfway through the record you’re not even moved by them anymore: it’s just a part of the song. It feels boring by the time the elapsed 35-minute mark swings in (maybe even earlier for others).

Had this album been written and had its ideas spawned sparsely between weeks/months instead of busting the entire thing out in a single week (which members Kitcher and Pickard reportedly did), it probably would have had its songs made more memorable and had its parts shine more vividly. Compare these songs to the band’s latest two outings and The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution feels almost like a prototype to IA’s advancements. Thankfully tracks such as “II. Anal Prolapse Suffocation” or the phenomenally composed “Cuntcrusher” show that some parts of the album were crafted more masterfully than others. For every seven breakdowns here, there's about one guitar solo. Moments like those which show diversity are which keep this album from being awful. In a album that, in my judgement, was written, composed and put out far too quickly without that necessary chemistry or experimentation that most bands go through in their early writing stages, there are still so many good things that make TPLOP a good record with a lot of fun moments to behold.

Vocals are a big one I haven’t even touched on yet. I hereby blame and accuse this album for putting that absurd vocal trend on the map. Bands like Signs of the Swarm which quite literally abuse ridiculous-sounding vocals purely for attention/marketing purposes - which is all so common in 2019 deathcore - can all be coherently rooted to Dan Watson's performance in Infant Annihilator. Maybe nowadays the vocals on this album might not be anything to shit a brick over, but in 2012 hearing a guy that crossed the paths of what sounded like Phil Bozeman, Vincent Bennett, Elliot Desgagnés and Alex Koehler - but on steroids - was a sight to behold at the forefront for such a shockingly brutal package. If IA's breakdowns or technical musicianship didn't grab you by the throat, Dan Watson was the last line of defense to assure that this band's music wasn't gonna go unnoticed. It achieved that so, so well... A little too well considering it made this vocal style a entire fad. Couple that with lyrics that paint a very gross and extreme image made this album one of the memorable musical releases of 2012.

Guest features? Eh, sans Lucas Mann's guitar solos on Flayed and Consumed, they're bland and pointless. All the vocal features are unnecessary; they do nothing for the songs in particular and are forgettable at best. I will only give kudos to Mann's feature, his solos really do add a distinct depth and specialty to the track. I would have liked to see more inclusions such as his where a outside artist's innovative talent truly contributes to the song they're on, but unfortunately "Flayed and Consumed" is the only track on here that has such a impression.

The last final thing I can really give this album credit for is production standards, it's huge, it's in your face and when you take it into account that all 3 members were collectively 20 - 23 years old at the time of recording/production it really takes fascination into account as well. Guitars sound like buzzsaws ripping through human flesh, the bass guitar is audible more than half of the time and the drum samples consist of constant, piercing snare hits, which, while sounding laughably fake, do carry a ton of power. Sure, it’s 127 on the MIDI volume scale all the time, but it does the job. I personally will even go as far to say that this album is produced/mixed even huger than some albums I listen to even now. It's pretty much the essential thing that made this album age like fine wine.

Bottom line: Compared to Infant's later records this one takes less a prominence on technicality. While you will find a fair amount of technical moments, the primary focus seems to be on the breakdowns and crushing atmosphere. Basically the desire to be as overwhelmingly heavy as possible is prioritized at the forefront for this album and that's the way it is because that's just how IA was birthed; they had a goal to do and delivered.
From a nostalgic standpoint this album means a lot to me. Unfortunately 2012 was 7 years ago; I've moved on and lived a lot of life since then. However, I still occasionally can find myself returning to this record for mere dumb fun and embracing one's inner-idiot. Much like what albums such as Annotations of an Autopsy's Before the Throne of Infection proved years before, is that gorecore can be enjoyed better if you reserved your seat in advance and know what you're in for before getting into it.

"...His kingdom shall rot forever
I have no sympathy for God"