Scorched Earth

Here we have San Pablo‘s Infestor and their only recorded demo released to date, titled “Scorched Earth,” before the group hit hiatus status in 2010. This thrash/death quartet once was the youngest band to be formed in the Philippines, with members ranging in ages 13-16 during the band’s formation around 2008. “Scorched Earth” was originally put out in CD-R format by a record label in Canada called Skull Fucking Metal back in March of 2010, then Cebu‘s Malphas Productions had distributed their own version in cassette format in 2021.

Given that the members were really young during the formation of Infestor, it really made me respect these guys a lot. When I was their age, the only heavy extreme bands that I knew were Slayer and Arise-era Sepultura, while these kids (back then), however, were already hands-on with extreme metal artillery and were already crafting ass-kicking materials for a demo.

Now, “Scorched Earth” sheathes 4 tracks, running 20 minutes of playing time, of absolutely pure and hard-lined ass-kicking death/thrash metal music. The riffs in this record are with instant appeal, and the guitar department throws in some killer mid-tempo stomper riffs here and there that will absorb listeners to stay and listen to the whole thing. A generous amount of melodic shreddy guitar solos were also scattered about in the record, and though they may not be that unique, they have enough capability to make you surrender to Infestor’s music and get you to mimic the antics of doing air guitar solos.

The bass section is audible, and when I say audible, I mean you can feel and hear it there, as the release is bass-heavy and the thickness of that department peeks through the aggressive surface of the demo time and time again. Then there’s the drum work that borders on blast beats and bludgeoning mid-paced hammering, which I quite like since it doesn’t really overpower the other elements of material, unlike most albums coming out of this sub-genre of metal where the drumming buries everyone else. Vocal work in here constantly maintained a delivery in between the lines of midrange raspy barks and frail screams, which, in my opinion, is ideal to the output of what the band was trying to achieve with the album.

At its core, “Scorched Earth” is a quality slab of proto-death metal release. Too bad that the band had taken hiatus before putting out a follow-up, or a full-length, after this offering because the songs here will definitely leave you wanting more. If you dig that heavier side of thrash metal, or proto-death metal, then this demo will definitely be up your alley.