Review Summary: Falling short of expectations.
British/United States based deathcore group Infant Annihilator have really made a name for themselves over the years for their very unhinged take on the genre. They will go all out, all the time, no ifs, ands, or buts. Usually, this isn't a problem because while the instrumentation can get very silly over time, the songwriting is usually able to shine through and create something worth listening to. Well, maybe that was the case on their 2016 effort, "The Elysian Grandeval Galèriarch"; now with the "The Battle of Yaldabaoth", the presentation is more mixed than ever.
The first half of the album is actually pretty solid, it contains singles with songwriting that's on par with the bands previous best. These singles will incorporate dizzying guitar and drum work, but what shines most are the coherent song structures that always give things a lot of direction. Some of the riffs can truly be a test for even the most esteemed guitarist to play, but they somehow make it work. Eddie Pickard is a madman on the fretboard, but drummer Aaron Kitcher will even give him a run for his money.
These drum parts feel inhuman in many of the segments, and it seems pretty clear that Kitcher isn't able to play these parts authentically, which is probably a big reason why the band has never played a live show. It does kind of hurt things knowing that the musicians in the band are unable to play their parts accurately in a real-life setting. Nonetheless, the drum parts throughout a lot of the album are absolutely killer and deliver insane drum fills and blast beats.
Where the album really falls short is in its second half. It just doesn't seem as much thought was put into these songs as the first half tracks. They are all suddenly far less coherently structured, and rarely will they incorporate a guitar riff that's even the slightest bit catchy. What makes it worse is that the heaviness of these songs just become very dime a dozen; the same intensity is brought throughout much of the runtime. The album is incredibly long, and it's not able to justify its runtime. On their 2016 album, it was justified. That album had many longer songs that proved to be rewarding for hardcore fans who were invested enough to check those out, and it paid off beautifully.
On "Yaladabaoth", it's far from the case. These songs are all around four minutes in length and they all blend together. You could easily cut out a few songs from the latter half, and not many would really care. It's like the group intentionally chose for these to lack in coherent song structures. It's very unclear what they where replaced with, as they are not anymore heavy than the previous tracks, either. The features fall flat, too, with names like Alex Terrible of Slaughter to Prevail providing a vocal feature that doesn't really stand out. It's just the same issue as before, where your mind just becomes numb to the heaviness after a while. At least Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder actually provides a sick performance on his track.
The album doesn't even end on a high note, you'd think a song with a name like "Necropocalypse" would deliver on something particularly gnarly. But honestly, not really. It's just the same par for the course, only it's a bit longer this time. To add insult to injury, they end on a troll breakdown, breaking into some clown shoe squeaks or something. It seems the effect they wanted to go for was because the breakdowns on the previous couple of songs were so heavy that this troll would really hit by contrast. The only problem is the directly previous songs didn't hit at all. They just didn't stand out whatsoever, like most other tracks on the second half.
"The Battle of Yaldabaoth" should have delivered what the band has been known for, but it just falls short. The first half hits the mark, but the second just starts to blend together in a hodgepodge of heaviness that becomes mind-numbing. To make it worse, the intense and creepy atmosphere in their 2016 effort is completely stripped away here. It lacks that sinister, alluring quality that made that album so special. Sure, the album has a few standout singles, but as a whole, it's a disappointment.
