Repugnant Inebriation hail from England, and have been putting the four years since their formation to effective use spreading their name in the live arena and crafting snippets like “Empire of Hate” to tease us all with a glimpse of what a monster they might one day evolve into. Brutal, accomplished and creative, this short EP definitely leaves one wanting a whole lot more than the offered thirteen minutes.
Rattling, ominous death metal is the order of the day, classic and as impactful as a hammer to the face, eschewing anything experimental, futuristic or ‘crossover’ to create a pure and full-blooded homage to the genre, and penning in melody with bulldozer heaviness and relentless blasting and shredding to make sure no accusations of softness can be made. Opener “Dead Soul” is a prime example, witnessing the band throw together brutal and cleverly structured riffs with a professional ease. Underpinning this endeavour is an omnipresent and threatening bass, and devastating percussive assault, whilst painting in the details is a howling, twisting solo which sears across the sonic landscape with no little technical extravagance.
“War Beyond Reason” again showcases an agile trickiness in Repugnant Inebriation, with sinisterly weaving riffs, which crush in a straightforward manner one moment, before cascading away into a spooky piece of atmosphere the next. This sense of otherworldly twisting weirdness is present on “Empire of Hate”, too, and coupled with the rolling, disorientating solos strongly evoke Morbid Angel- an instinct compounded by watching the band play “Rapture” live, with a lot of flair and not even a second glance of concern given to the solo.
With Cris’s vocals plumbing the gnarly depths of hell with power and poise, and providing a very well-suited focus for Repugnant Inebriation’s song-writing, the overall sound is one of classic brutal USDM, but not as a pale imitation or lame ‘revival’; the guitar work is too good and structuring too inventive to write RI off as a copy, and they are reminiscent of no single band, rather, they pick and choose the prime cuts from any number of forebears. Their energetic, aggressive and heavy-as-hell approach reveals a whole lot of creativity, and I’ll greatly look forward to hearing a full-length from this promising act.
http://www.myspace.com/repugnantinebriation
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gfrrmuZFhSQ
