Review Summary: Infested is a Technical Death Metal band from Germany. Prepare to be mindfucked.
Infested started as a brutal death metal band hailing from Germany, in later releases they have moved more towards the Technical side. In their nine years together they have released four demos and two full lengths. The first actual song on the album is “Metaphysical Grotesqueries” don’t let the simplistic song title fool you this song is very complex and mindboggling. Unlike a lot of the technical metal being produced today Infested focus on making a good song rather than just showing off and being wanky for the sake of being wanky. One problem with the record is the guitar tone, it is very heavily distorted almost too distorted for my taste which is pretty astonishing considering I love fairly heavy distortion, it just seems very thin when it gets to this level of distortion, this could be a turn off to many.
The album has some interesting moments. Try listening to the non-distorted opening riff from “Knives” and try not to compare it to a certain Metallica riff, the similarity is very clear. The majority of this album is very chaotic, on small occasions you are given a short break from all the madness that dwells within the 1000 Doors, “Avalokiteshvrava” is a beautiful interlude that does just that. Typically I’m quick to call interludes filler but this fits practically perfect on the record, it gives just enough of a break to keep the album from becoming extremely tiresome. Though this album is labeled as technical there is quite an amount of chugging involved, but it is done in a tasteful way to say the least. When listening to the drumming on this album one influence comes to mind, Marco Pitruzzella. (Brain Drill drummer) Blast beats of plenty come from their machine of a drummer.
Vocal wise this album is decent but not very experimental, but the vocalist does have a good range. Most of the album his belts out high pitched screams, and deep gutturals, occasionally some squeals here and there not often enough to become a burden though. The vocal approach on this album could bore many people that aren’t particular fans of the genre.
Most of the music on the album can just be seen as a less chaotic version of Brain Drill’s latest outing “Apocalyptic Feasting”, but with its breaks from the insanity and it slightly more experimental overall instrumental showing the album reigns supreme when compared to it. When first listening to this you can hear the very strong influence grind had on this record, with a punishing rhythm section and seizure inducing riffs plowing down anything that crosses its path. The intent they had when making this record is very clear, they wanted it to be a technical album, as well as fun and heavy and they succeeded at just that.
Overall I give “1000 Doors” a 3.5 out of 5. It is a blistering mix of modern death metal infused with technicality; I recommend this to anyone who likes technical death metal or anyone who just wants to get into the death metal genre. It is a fairly digestible album, and most definitely a fun listen. “1000 Doors” also has good replay value, but overall is best taken in small doses.
Pros:
Sick rhythm section
Good vocal range
Great Interlude
Good replay value
Cons:
Way too much distortion
Some may get bored
