After the much-heralded Malignant Reality was released in the depths of the pandemic, it was kind of difficult to see where Replicant would progress in terms of sound. However, with the imminent drop of Infinite Mortality those questions and concerns are answered and assuaged. From the first fuzzed out weirdo chord, to the last dissonant ringings this album hits as hard as anything that’s come before it, with some delightful twists and turns to boot. It seems that Replicant can’t help but hit home runs in the world of dissonant death metal, with their particular brand of hard hitting, headbanging, mosh pit opening riffs.
The jams and riffs are still very much the focus of Infinite Mortality; however, they’ve taken the laser focused production of the last album and cast it aside in favour of a claustrophobic, smothering dirtiness that their earlier albums were replete with. The vocals are once again like a chained demon being used to channel some sort of profane ritual, sucking through the void eldritch mutterings and otherworldly tongues shrieked with an inhuman level of pain. The signature grooviness is still very much there as the band settles in with the (not so) new drummer. The tightness that was present in Malignant Reality is still there in the background, but it seems the band have chosen to move in favour of some of the loser more groove ridden tendencies shown in their earlier effort Negative Life. This record sees Replicant come into their own, harnessing the best of both worlds, the lose jazzy nature of those early records and the ultra-tight hard-hitting brutality of Malignant Reality.
“It seems that Replicant can’t help but hit home runs in the world of dissonant death metal, with their particular brand of hard hitting, headbanging, mosh pit opening riffs.”
There are so many moments on an album like this that cause inadvertent headbanging and a big dumb grin to spread its way across the pale visage of the metalhead on their morning commute. Time and time again the drums signal a short break in the track, possibly for some more excellent bass work courtesy of Mike Gonçalves, or maybe for some ultra spaced out glitching madness, but always followed up by yet another riff that blows your socks off, and causes those involuntary movements of the neck and head regardless of where it is heard. Whilst some people might see this is much of the same from Replicant (it does bare their very distinct and well established hallmark at this point) what they have actually achieved here is a further distillation of an already excellent formula, it’s been worth the wait, and it’ll be worth the wait whatever they produce next.