Infant Island : " Beneath"

 The first song is a droning ditty where the screamed vocals do not come into until the last minute of the song making it amost just feel like an intro rather than a song. The sounds are pleasing , but this is the last time they are going to get away with sounds instead of writing a song. That may or may not be a challenge as these guys are a blend of black meta and screamo. The urge to bast and just scream will be strong. They are aso prone to noisy bouts of ambiance as felt in "Content", but the over all mood of the song which would fall under post black metal works for me. "The Garden" does something I like with moody music that has screaming over it to contrast it . The defy most conventions on this song. It is chaotic but in the best way. Very nightmarish.


"One Eyed" gets lost in the feral explosion. They have already shown me they can rein this in and do something special so this is less than impressive. The more melodic guitar going into "Death Portrait" renews my hope. The screaming is more overpowering in the mix. Not as good as 'the Garden" but it works for what they do. I am not sure I think what they do well 90 pecent of the time at this point. The have sense of dynamics and are sonicaly heavy two things that work in their favor. This gy does havea convincing way of torturing his throat. I think if they gave us more of what they are doing on "Stare Spells" this album would be great. I am not saying make everything sound like this , but use the elements that work best with the musical colors at their disposable. That is what that song does.

The album ends with something, that is really just an ambient outro. This album has several of such pieces that I did not feel like bringing up as when it comes to songs are not something I am just going to listen to on my iPod. Maybe if I still did drugs I might appreciate more.  I think overal these guys are onto something, the screamo wins out over the black metal giving it a more punkish feel. I like the bulk of what they do after it sinks in so I will give this album a 9 as they are dark and experimental without trying to sound like anyone.