### Inherit Disease: Visceral transcendence

#### 05/04/14 || The Duff

Inherit Disease may have come to your attention with their debut full-length, artwork courtesy of the remarkable Par Olofsson, “Procreating an Apocalypse”, and well they should have – the album showed promise, and although the set-up was a little linear, the production dry akin to early Deeds of Flesh, the music not of the most original, a bit rough around the gills (am I selling it to you yet?), the riffs were what mattered when many new bands of the sub-genre are generic slobbering on Cannibal Corpse nuts – not a faultless record, most of it demanded repeat listens as on par with Putridity’s early days, all that they needed was to mature, which they have done remarkably well here.

“Visceral Transcendence” is the follow-up having taken four years and a shocking increase of experience to write and record, becoming one of the greatest modern brutal death metal records alongside “Chapters of Repugnance”, “Nourishing the Spoil” and “Degenerating Anthropophagical Euphoria” (Defeated Sanity, Guttural Secrete and Putridity respectively).

To compare “Procreating an Apocalypse” to “Visceral Transcendence” is like comparing Guttural Secrete’s “Reek of Putrefaction” with “Nourishing the Spoil”; the band’s early days are infectious and show promise, the follow-up reveals songwriting kicked up tenfold, the arrangements more engaging and then all the best ideas of the predecessor used to more dazzling effect.

It is a perfect record, remarkably at ten tracks which should by all means overpower the listener but as with “Reek of Putrefaction”, the album is packed in tight, no track surpassing the four minute mark, half not even getting past three – the music is foremost brilliantly presented, nothing outstays its welcome no matter how some ideas are begging to be repeated – the jerky infectiousness of “Digital Rapture”, its middle riff springs to mind.

It is riffs like this as with the ending of “Nourishing the Spoil” by Guttural Secrete that usher bands like Inherit Disease to the fore of the brutal death metal pack. The production is faultless, bass-heavy, clear, crisp – it’s hard to imagine a better delivery.

As for performances, there are no guitar solos, the riffs are demanding enough, mixing slow battering with rapid flurry, and then some off-kilter rhythms too, abnormal flourishes. I also wouldn’t call this a slam record, but a return to the classic breakdown days of Suffocation, where the lead-up was paramount (why bands like Abominable Putridity shall always be in the shadow of those like Inherit Disease in my mind), and the noteworthy ways in which Andy Kirk introduces us into such keeps “Visceral Transcendence” fresh even during the most trawling parts of the record.

The bass ruptures the listener, I’m not kidding – it doesn’t drown, it accentuates, yet give it enough attention it will beat you around the head, absolutely vicious bass-tone. The drumming is phenomenal, ferocious, precise, on par with all of the great names – Malignancy (Heller), Suffocation (Smith), Origin (Longstreth); that endearing balance of nimble, athletic and heavy.

This record is the reason I listen to extreme death metal; there are good bands, and then there those that master the juxtaposition of technicality and effect, the extremity of the music and the muso – it is everything that extreme death metal should be, and if I were to compare this is to anything else in the scene it is a nice middle ground between Defeated Sanity’s catchy, tech “Passages of Deformity” with some of the spitfire of Guttural Secrete and classic Deeds of Flesh influence.

The best part of it is they are back in the studio for a brand new album this year.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Unique Leader Records
- Website: Inherit Disease Facebook
- Band
- Obie Flett: vocals
- Andy Kirk: drums
- Josh Welling: bass
- Sean Kennedy: guitars

- Tracklist
- 01. Vessel of Inhumanity
- 02. Sentient Horror
- 03. Beyond the Tyranny of Entropy
- 04. Hivemind
- 05. Birth of the Artilect
- 06. Digital Rapture
- 07. Dark Facets of Self Indulgence
- 08. Prolific Dominance
- 09. Nanoscourge
- 10. Maelstrom of Vindictive Torment