Inferi – The Path of Apotheosis (The Artisan Era)
Thursday, 27th February 2014
Going back to the late 2000’s, Inferi was a massively overlooked melodic death metal band by way of Tennessee. After their second full-length, The End of An Era, the band called it quits in 2010, only to reform a few months later with a revamped line-up. The Path of Apotheosis is their first output since their reformation, and is worth every second of the wait.
Clocking in at almost 65 minutes in length, the music of The Path of Apotheosis is as grand and epic in scope as its gorgeous artwork would suggest. As a band that mostly sticks to a rapid-fire pace, shredding riffs, and frequent blast beats, it would have been easy to make the album a blurry, unmemorable mess. Where Inferi succeed in spades is in creating riffs that are truly compelling. Only occasionally aided by synths, it is Malcolm Pugh and Mike Low’s guitar work that not only keeps listeners afloat, but eager and engaged for the hour-long affair.
Technical, but not to the point of needing a music degree to decipher, the riffs do their best to blur the lines between melodic death, thrash, and black metal with ease. The melodic leads and staggering solo work rightly shine, elevating every moment and never feeling obligatory. An early favorite here would be “Wrath of the Fallen Ones,” with its rare moment of calm, followed by a melodic solo, which brings a mesmerizing harmony to finish the track.
Inferi have crafted one of those albums that really needs to be digested and listened to with your complete attention. Comfortably sinking into the double-digits on spins at this point and nothing gets old, in fact some of the leads happen to grab hold that didn’t the first few times. If that’s not the purpose of a long-term album, then what is? If you enjoy technically friendly death metal, The Path of Apotheosis should be next on your must-hear list.
