(written by Islander)

Next month the always interesting Personal Records will release a new album by The Infernal Deceit, a German duo consisting of guitarist/bassist C and vocalist R, ably aided on the album by session drummer Jörg Uken. This new full-length, The True Harmful Black, is the successor to the band’s independently released 2021 album debut The Formless Graves (a vinyl release followed via Idiots Records in 2022).

Having overlooked that debut, the new album has provided our own introduction to The Infernal Deceit‘s talents, and it is (to put it mildly) a wonderfully eye-opening discovery. The “elevator pitch” is that the band have drawn inspiration from melodic blackened death metal from the mid-to-late ’90s. Delving deeper, the PR materials make comparative references to “prime Unanimated, second- or third-album Sacramentum, Darkside-era Necrophobic, the lone Vinterland album, ’90s Naglfar or Ebony Tears or Sweden’s Eucharist, or even In Flames‘ never-sullied The Jester Race.”

All of that is very enticing to people like us who found our way into extreme metal through bands such as those, but even more enticing is the immediate experience of The Infernal Deceit‘s new music, which is equal parts thrilling and chilling, ferocious and epic. We have a great example in the album track “Schwarz” that we’re premiering today. Continue reading »