Phobia

This was a harsher musical change for Insanity with their debut Phobia. For one, the sound got a lot rougher. On here, they play a death metal style, still in the thrash phase, with a hint of melody. This starts to break out of their previous mold more. And show primarily a more aggressive playing style. What helps enhance this effect, compared to the EP, is the recording sounds thicker and murkier.

They stepped the mean level up a few notches. On the riffs, there is a thick back and forth constant pummeling, which is a change compared to the last. On the EP he used a more mild thrash quality. And a more accessible down-played musical style. This, however, uses much more riff changes. Where as on the EP they used a more paced, processed writing style. He isn't technically proficient, except when it comes to solos. Primarily he uses a simple chugged rhythm, combined together with a purposeful choice to use more deeper and thicker sounding chords. There are brief moments where he uses a strummed technique, where he will hit a few notes in a quick up and down fashion. Another difference on here is the vocals. They sound much more rough in comparison, and fitting to the music. The last displayed a borderline clear roar, which I'm not too fond of that style of vocalization. On Phobia, he uses a yelled, slight growl, and a specific exaggerated rounding of his words. There is a chorus section on the song Innocent Laughter where the music slows down and his vocals becoming a mumbling whisper, accompanied with clear sung female vocals in the background. The drumming doesn't stand out as much as the guitars and vocals. It is in the mix about as loud as the guitars, with the vocals being loudest. He uses a basic drumming style and keeps the music on beat. His pace only breaches thrash galloping, and typically stays at a mid-pace. Except rare moments where he will use a quick blast.

One of the lesser moments on here is the main riff on the song Mistakes to Oblivion. It uses a quick single note finger tap, not as fast as a blazing solo. But comes off as inconsistent with the rest of the songs, as well as too melodic and upbeat. The intro is a strange choice too. However, maybe it is because I'm not seeing the 'big picture.' It uses industrial sounds, including a reverbed locomotive, also coming-and-going hammering, and jack-hammering. Although, the intro on the song Pleasure of Pain has a short sound bit from the movie Hellraiser. If they have found an intro that would be fitting to the song title, I would say it was a justifiable choice.

With the roughening of their music, I think Insanity made a more appealing presentation on Phobia. Their first EP shows a band that would have a borderline edge of appealing to more people. Here they probably left some fans from the previous way of playing. However, I prefer the more aggressive genre that they present on this. With the production becoming darker, the riffs adding more change-ups to their arsenal, and the vocals becoming more rough. The bass however sounds like it was blended with the guitars. And is probably why they have a more deep sludgy sound. With everything combined, Insanity display their brand of extreme music with a decent amount of musical remedies.