The Faint Smell of Suicide

Italian melodic death metal! w00t! What difference does it really make that they are from Italy? It's still basically a good old slab of the Swedish stuff, right? Conceivably so, but Infliction is so much more than that. With this, their first full length after forming some 7 years prior, it is more than apparent that this sextet has an abundance of fresh musical ideas for the genre, and they have presumably had plenty of time to get their heads to work on the same level, and had enough time to prepare to record this great album.

So what makes it so great? Everything. While not 100% on the whole genre defying thing, Infliction work hard to keep things dynamic and fresh. Proper use of non dominant keyboards and the occasional sample plays a large part. There are some intricate acoustic passages, slow heavy parts, genuine guitar solos that aren't overly technical, mid paced parts, faster parts, tons of different vocals (get to that in a moment), and it all flows together fittingly. The music here is all balanced perfectly, and on further examination, isn't all that easy to pin down into the melodic death metal field. Perhaps being from Italy has something to do with this...then again, perhaps not.

The guitars are gritty, yet crisp, and yes, they do have somewhat of a distinct Swedish sound to them. The guitarists tune all the way down to B, or perhaps they use 7 stringed guitars, for an added crunch. They have a knack for good riffing, with interesting twists and turns. Infliction's songwriting is pretty much the opposite of repetative melodic death, while still basically fitting in the gernre of course. Everything is strung together so well. The drummer doesn't feel the need to implement random blasting, or drum patterns that seem out of place in certain contexts of certain songs. He seems to play just what is needed to enliven up each segment, with lots of variation, shifting tempos and structures often, without making the songs disjointed. Another big plus for the drums is that while aggressive, they are not too loud in the mix. Now onto the vocals, ranging from clean signing, to insane screaming, and everything in between. Actually, there are a few guest vocalists on this cd, Björn Goosses of Night In Gales, Goth Gorgon and Draakh Kimera of Mörk Gryning, and Aphazel of Ancient. Interestingly enough, they all participate on the song 'Unmorning' (as well as a few others, I am unaware which ones precisely, but only together on this song). Pretty damn fucking cool I must say. A hell of a lot of vocals techniques are utalized on this cd, just one more reason why it is one of the furthest things from boring.

There may seem to be a lot of excellent melodic death hailing from Italy [Algophobia, All In Vain, Bladhe, Esicastic, Fields of Asphodel, Shoreborn, and Thy Anthem Fades to name a few), but with this cd Infliction stand tall as the (practically) uncomparable elite, and put their name on the map. Certainly a standout album for me in 2002, I recommend you get ahold of this moderately obscure release.