OUR LIST OF 2017’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 8): IMMOLATION, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, INCONCESSUS LUX LUCIS

 

I can’t say there was really an organizing theme or strategy that motivated my decision to group together these three new additions to our Most Infectious Song list. They simply happened to be close together on my master list of candidates, which is alphabetized by band name. And they also happened to be easy choices for me… though all three tracks had serious competition among others on the albums from which they came.

IMMOLATION

It was a given. in my mind, that something from Immolation’s new album would be on this list. With Atonement, they proved again (as they have over and over) that they “are one of those untouchable bands”, to quote from TheMadIsraeli’s review of the album. They were pioneers, and they remain inimitable… and they just never give up, never surrendering to the weight of years or the burdens of expectations.

 

 

And here I’ll quote again from TheMadIsraeli’s review, because it seems particularly relevant to the focus of this list:

“Immolation grooves have an unmistakably sinister, propulsive nature about them that almost feels like some sort of aural witchcraft in how they can get you to move in reaction to the music. This record has the most consistently hard-hitting Immolation grooves and breakdowns that I can remember hearing from the band at any point in their career. It milks their best aspects to the point of taking the music into pornography territory”.

“Lower” most certainly makes you feel like moving (even the cadence of the lyrics have that effect), in addition to the song’s many other strengths. And although it did have strong competition from such other tracks as “Fostering the Divide”, it proved to be the most infectious of them in my mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HIDEOUS DIVINITY

If Adveniens doesn’t plant a big banner on the global map of metal with Hideous Divinity’s name emblazoned on it in large letters, I don’t know what will. The album is a stunner, so much so that it merits the term “breathtaking”. It was the subject of one of DGR’s very detailed reviews, and I’ll pull a few of his thoughts by way of introducing the next song on this list:

“Hideous Divinity have approached the new disc with concept in hand and a determination to throw everything they have into each song, going beyond mere spectacles of talent and brutality and into surgical bludgeoning form, multiple strikes aimed at leveling whole city blocks but done with such focus that they hit their target every time.

“…Adveniens is filled to the brim with rhythmic riffs like tidal waves crashing over your head, each song further ensconcing Hideous Divinity well within that lightspeed-fast, hyper-death-metal genre, one that takes many cues from brutal death metal but is less about the overall groove and more about just utter relentlessness.”

However, my friend DGR also noted that there are also plenty of headbangable moments across Adveniens, and more than a few tracks that have a highly addictive effect. “When Flesh Unfolds” is definitely one of those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INCONCESSUS LUX LUCIS

When I premiered “The Crowning Quietus” last August, I wrote:

“I’d wager that you haven’t heard a song like ‘The Crowning Quietus’ this week. Or this month. Or this year. Or maybe even since the last record by Inconcessus Lux Lucis back in 2014… This new one is an out-and-out romp, such a high-energy bast of distinctively hellish fun that it could wake the dead and get them on their feet and moving.”

And the title track to this British duo’s latest album has proven to be just as much fun to hear — and just as fascinating to hear — almost six months later as it was the very first time. To quote again from the introduction to the premiere:

“It’s a mercurial affair that rocks, dances, and destroys. The powerful drum rhythm and throat-gripping riff that launch the song and help bring it to an explosive close is the first sign that this band know how to make people move, and that voice you’ll hear — deep, rounded, knife-edged, and ravenous — is also a sure sign that violence lurks on the edges.

“The music is marked by frequent changes of tempo and changing stylistic flourishes as well. Driven by blast-beats and deranged guitar leads, it rips as well as rocks. And it also bounces and bounds, conjuring images of an infernal carnival, with the guitar sounding like a brass band in a sulfurous dancehall. And as the song builds to a delirious crescendo, there’s a completely remarkable extended guitar solo that casts visions of a night in a roadhouse on the highway to Hades.”