A Symphony Of Suffering

A death metal band from Florida, USA? Hmmm…why does that sound so hauntingly familiar? To put a quick stop to pitifully quirky genre-jokes, Infernaeon is one of the more modern representatives of this famous swampy scene. It is all the more why I was nearly shocked to hear a piano-laced, grandiose intro starting off the album. The band incorporates keyboards and atmospheres more often heard in the gothy sides of black metal into the death-rank. Despite the grandeur, when the members have bands like Monstrosity on their resume, you can be assured to hear devastating riffing and fast drum rolls. The intro gives high hopes of some good mixes of aggressive metal and operatic backgrounds. Embodiment Of Sin begins with a nice little riff and double bass kicks, morphing into some furious blast beats…but by the name of Satan, what is wrong with this production?!? Where are the drums? There is a lonely tinning kick drum and I guess that cardboard box being pounded in the background is a snare, but I just can’t feel a good, gripping rhythm. The guitars are slightly muddy as well and really could use some boost. The sounds aren’t really that bad, thankfully not at the level of trve-grim-black metal-bad, but still weak. The vocals, while harsh and impressive in anger, are given way too much emphasis in the mix as they tend to block too much of the instrumentations. The organs and keyboards are a bit too loud as well. Not loud in general, but in relation to the guitars. The weird thing is that from the third song onwards the drums gain some power in the soundscape, but they still occasionally sound like wooden blocks. It is a shame because the music is not bad at all. As I said the singing in all its onesidedness is filled with force. As the bands website amusingly advertises the boastfulness of, “Brian Werner’s own vocal-spewing style pushing the boundaries of extreme vocals. On "Sleeping God" alone, Werner holds a one-breath scream for an unheard of 40 full seconds while his unrelenting band mates rage on.” To be honest, the scream seems to last just over 30 seconds, but it is still impressive. The is mighty tremolo riffing and deathier guitar work all over the place and some solos are sparkled here and there to add some twisted sprints of melody. The keyboards make for some great moods in the background, adding drama to the down-to-earth blasting. Overall my score does not make justice to the musical side on A Symphony Of Suffering, but as I always consider the production a very important part of the package, I cannot go higher. Listeners with less obsessed hi-fi-wanker –ears than mine will probably enjoy this a lot more.