Infinite Fields

‘Irreversible Mechanism’ is probably the first technical death metal band that I actually liked. The guys are from Belarus and have released this debut in March 2015. The filthy vocals that blame every band in the field are probably what has kept me away from the sub-genre for a while, and they’re present here too, but not quite to the same extent. So I finally found my way into the genre and got accustomed to it. It was about time I gave this band a shout out because they are pretty underrated and they are quite promising.

‘Infinite Fields’ is a savage dose of adrenaline with the potential to cause some pretty serious brain damage. It’s pretty straightforward tech-death stuff so if you listen to this genre a lot you kind of know what to expect. The extreme guitar riffs and ludicrous shreds are probably the centerpiece of the album and the overall apocalyptic atmosphere is what stops it from becoming redundant. You can blame the background synths for this vibe. This isn’t the most original or creative album but it has enough ideas and elements to keep it alive until the end. It’s also a compact 39 minute album so it’s finished before you can start getting bored.

Though also predictable, I have to mention the drum work as a highlight. The double-pedals and blast beats are to blame for the constant grinding that comes at you like a beast and it’s impressive even if you already see it coming. And they also introduce some nice shifts, stops and grooves on the drums to create a really brutal dynamic. The bass tends to follow all these pattern changes on the drums but it’s not always audible because of the mixing that doesn’t really help it out. The sound quality is good but some elements tend to disappear here & there and annoyingly it’s never the vocals. Like I said, I’m not an admirer of the pig squeal department, and Irreversible Mechanism cross that territory more than a few times. I wouldn’t change it too much because the really low grunt matches the style of the album but there isn’t much to say about it though.

Well, this is tech death, so you eat up a lot of really technical stuff from every instrument and you get screamed at a lot. So the attitude that this record comes at you with is showing off quite a lot, but it is for good reason. They really, REALLY know their shit. If you’re going to make an album that wants to kill the listener, you have to equip it properly, so it can do the job right. They succeed to push the limits just far enough to be impressive even for people who know what to expect from tech-death. The comparisons to Fallujah might convince if you don’t want to take my word for it. So despite appearing like a bunch of egotistic teenagers at first, you grow fond of their music after a few spins. On top, they actually have some cool ideas placed in here. The opener ‘Into the Void’ and the title track are probably the best tracks and they give you a lot of ideas and variety compared to the rest of the songs. I also liked what they did at some points in the album where they pan some guitar riffs left and right, and towards the end they give you some nice surprises like the sweeping and synth section in ‘The Betrayer of Time’ or the creepy clean guitar at the end of ‘Cold Winds’.

What really motivated me to check out this album in more detail was the announcement of the second album titled ‘Immersion’ that has just been released and is highly praised by the label as being a lot more mature. So I’m really curious to check that out and to see if the improvement from the debut is as great as the promoters claim. But I’m certainly convinced that the guys have a lot of potential and I do recommend the debut ‘Infinite Fields’.

Enjoy!