Infernal Conjuration: Infernale Metallum Mortis (2019)

Infernal Conjuration was one of the opening acts when I saw The Chasm last July.  I had not previously heard of them, but their performance was excellent.  I was so impressed that I picked up the vinyl issue of this album, the band's debut. 

To begin with, let's just say there is a pretty good reason why Infernal Conjuration would have been on tour with The Chasm in the first place.  Like The Chasm, Infernal Conjuration is a death metal band from Mexico with an eye towards progressive song structures and some technical riffs. 

The music here is a combination of The Chasm, Sadistic Intent, Death and Morbid Angel.  The songs are jam-packed with jagged riffs that often come out of nowhere and shifts in sound seemingly at random.  The most surprising aspect is that despite the almost constant shifts in tempo and riffs, the songs are actually coherent.  The album seems more like one long song that is completely unhinged, offering no chance at respite from the constant barrage of murky, demonic-sounding riffs.

I have spoken several times about the massive number of great death metal albums released recently.  Infernal Conjuration's full-length debut is definitely on that list, even if it did not make my Top 10 list.  It certainly came close. 

Toxodeth: Mysteries About Life and Death (1990)

Wild Rags Records had something of a reputation for off-the-wall releases in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  They also had a reputation for fucking over customers, but that is neither here nor there at this point.  I have long been interested in gathering some of the releases over the years, but they are not super easy to come by in their original formats.  Some of that fucking over customers thing probably helps in that regard.  I did come across this one though and off-the-wall is a pretty good description for it.

Toxodeth is a Mexican death metal band with some massive Possessed influence and an obsession with horror movies.  The song lyrics each tell a different story, many of them lifted directly from movies or novels, including "Phantasm" which is a massively underrated horror movie and one of my personal favorites.  Several well-known horror movie themes also make appearances throughout the album.  

What makes this album sort of weird though is that it seems to be much more of a glamour project for Raul Guzman, who plays guitar and keyboards and provides vocals.  There are a drummer and a bassist, but Guzman even plays bass on the final instrumental track which, surprise surprise, features a bass solo.  Otherwise the album feels like a lead guitar solo album as the songs are based more around the lead guitar melodies and squealing solos.  Guzman is a hell of a guitar player, that is for sure and he sort of beats the listener over the head with his abilities on this album.

Toxodeth is still technically active, but have not released much new material since the follow-up to this album.  This one is an intriguing listen, with a lot of interesting elements, particularly the obsession with horror.  As a fellow horror fan, that definitely speaks to me.  This would be an appropriate album for Halloween listening.

Transmetal: Burial at Sea (1992)

How the hell am I just now hearing about this band?  Transmetal is a Mexican thrash/death metal band who has been around since the mid 1980's and still continues pumping out music now.  They have also been incredibly prolific at various points in their career.  They have released an astounding 24 albums in their career and this album was one of two released in 1992 alone.  That is damn impressive.  The three constant members of the band are brothers, something, which is also impressive considering how long the band has lasted.  My brothers and I would have never been able to pull something like this off.

This album, much like everything else Transmetal has released, flew under the radar.  That seems to be the case about most of their material because all told they only have three total reviews on their Metal Archives page.  That is a damn shame because this album would have fit in quite well with the thrash metal scene as it was in the early 1990's.  I am talking about the progressive song structures and experimental riffing style.  It is not an overly aggressive sound, though there are some crushing riffs at times.  Think a less technical version of Heathen for an example.

The musicianship on the album is very impressive and the band is not content to write standard song progressions.  Riffs tend to drop out of nowhere and solos occur seemingly randomly.  But there is a method to the madness and the album actually manages to flow quite well.  The vocals have some unusual effect where they sound somewhat muffled and echoing. 

This album appears to be the first English-language album from Transmetal.  Unfortunately, it still failed to gain much of a following.  But this album is pretty damn good and I need to look into more of the band's catalog.  I certainly will after this release.

Question: Question (2018)

The oddly-named Question is a death metal band from Mexico.  Why they did not name themselves "Pregunta" or something like that, I am not really sure.  It is a somewhat bizarre name for a death metal band.  I have lots of questions about it.  Maybe that's the point?

Mexico does not have a real well-known metal scene, though there have been some great bands from south of the border.  Cenotaph and The Chasm are personal favorites.  There is also the blackened death metal band Hacavitz.  Of course the most well-known Mexican death metal band is Mortuary, whose album Blackened Images is an underrated classic.  So with the bands named, there are about four different styles represented.  Cenotaph is a razor-sharp melodeath band.  The Chasm is more of a cerebral technical/progressive death metal style.  Hacavitz, as mentioned, has more to do with black metal.  And then Mortuary is more of an old-school death metal band.  So then, the question is, what is Question? 

Not to try to read Question's members' minds, but their influence seems to be more closely Mortuary.  This is a decidedly murky-sounding death metal album that owes a lot to the early material by groups like Obituary and some Immolation thrown in for the old school crowd, but with some impressive melodic passages and some nice solo guitar work.  The bass is probably the most impressive instrument in the band, doing some very unique lines and generally doing a lot more than just keeping rhythm.  The whole thing is awash with a very sinister atmosphere that is helped along by the occasionally atonal leads.  The gruff vocal style also helps. 

This is a very intriguing EP from a young band from a country not really known for its metal.  I am definitely looking forward to hearing more from the band.

Altar of Blood: Total Evil and Darkness... (2018)

This was a freebie included in an order with yesterday's Morbosidad and tomorrow's band, which I will not name at this time.  Altar of Blood is a power trio that released their first recorded material last year.  They fit in well stylistically and contextually with Morbosidad.  Altar of Blood is from Mexico and one of their members is also the one-man band Zauront.

This is the band's second release, a four-song demo.  They released a promo a short time before this demo and have since released another demo.  The songs are all very short and the whole thing is over in just over 11 minutes.

Altar of Blood seem to have the same influences as Morbosidad, that being early black metal like Blasphemy.  There is a little more of a death metal influence present on this release though.  The production is murky and the vocals in particular have kind of a cavernous feel to them that adds to the evil atmosphere.  Altar of Blood make usage of a number of samples from horror movies to help with the overall effect.

The music here is ugly and raw.  Once again, there is absolutely nothing pretty here.  The drums are high in the mix, with the guitar riffs being a bit low in the mix.  The songs are fairly simplistic with no real complex riffs or drum patterns, which only adds to the raw feel.  "Malignal Possession" stands out with a little bit of an interlude during which there are no blast beats or crushing riffs, and the band comes closest to a melody.  If they build on that song in the future, they might really have something.

This band is fairly new.  It will be interesting to see where they go from here. 

My Favorite Metal Band from Mexico

Yet another one I just covered recently, so nothing further to add here.

NOTABLE SCENES: A particularly dirty brand of blackened death.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Hacavitz
The Chasm