I just love it when a plan comes together and exceeds the expectations created by the potential displayed on previous albums. This time, I am thoroughly impressed by New Jersey’s death metal unit Replicant and their third album Infinite Mortality, to the extent that my initial nods of approval have turned into reckless headbanging as the only appropriate response and proper way to communicate its crushing excellence.

The brilliance of Infinite Mortality lies in Replicant’s uncanny ability to combine and mutate seemingly every strain and era of death metal into a concoction that should impress even the most jaded and entrenched death head who is partial to only some of the sub-genres and normally categorically reluctant to see any melding thereof. The band have a peculiar way of making dissonance attractive to those who prefer their death metal melodic and instantly memorable. At the same time, the album’s malformed, contorted groove will hook those who normally have a bent for something more technical or avant-garde. As strange as it sounds to describe a twisted and complex death metal album eminently catchy, that is exactly what Infine Mortality is. It’s like witnessing a lizard evolving in real time into an apex predator that is equal parts brawn and cerebral and guided by heightened predatory instincts and preternatural adept at luring prey into its maw. 

Even when at its most pummeling, one cannot escape the feeling that Infinite Mortality is a weird album. I know I am not the only person whose mind is seized by unexpected associations with a warped version of Burn My Eyes era Machine Head existing in a necroverse where cancerous entropy reigns supreme and spreads via natural harmonics (“Shrine to the Incomprehensible”, “Pain Enduring”). On the other end of the spectrum of surprising associations, one can even hear a kinship with fellow nightmare-peddlers in Aeviterne, in how the respective howls of Mike Gonçalves and Garett Bussanick resonate in harmony in a shared dreamspace, or how Replicant occasionally intersperse their brutal grooves and pit-starter riffs with interjections of abstraction and ambience (like during the final two minutes of “Shrine to the Incomprehensible) which recall some of the crowning moments of Aeviterne’s hauntingly masterful The Ailing Facade. And while on the topic of pit-inducing triggers, look no further than the mauling madness of “Reciprocal Abandonment” or the neck-spanning brutality of “Orgasm of Bereavement” (in fact, I would very much like to witness anyone survive the moment at the song’s 1:40 mark in a live setting, or, for that matter, the non-stop onslaught from the opening track “Acid Mirror” through “Reciprocal Abandonment”, until the momentary respite and safe harbor offered by “SCN9A”).

Delightfully, Infinite Mortality is elevated to even greater heights by AJ Viana’s excellent production, which provides beautiful dynamic range and sounds cavernous, clear and gargantuan, guaranteeing an absolutely pleasant and morbidly delicious listening experience (one can only imagine how such a production would have benefited Vitriol’s recent, otherwise excellent Suffer & Become or many other albums that mistake loudness and brick-walled production for brutality).

In essence, Infinite Mortality is a torchbearer of an album that coalesces the rich diversity found under the umbrella of death metal and the best parts of its myriad sub-genres into something unequivocally irresistible and impactful.

– Zyklonius

---

Infinite Mortality is available now on Transcending Obscurity Records. For more information on Replicant, visit their Facebook page.