Destroying the stages of the world while blowing your heads off, German act Mortal Infinity possess a potent cocktail of thrash, death, and groove metal influences that come together seamlessly on their third full-length In Cold Blood. Together for over a decade, the quintet have churned out a previous Eternal War EP in 2010 plus two full-lengths in District Destruction (2012) and Final Death Denied (2015), taking aspects of their sound not only from their domestic brethren but expanding into the new wave of American heavy metal and 90’s death as well.
What this means for the listener is a sound that can be very assault-oriented, fist to the face and accelerator pushed to the max for the riffing, tempos and vocals for one song – then settle back into a mid-tempo groove zone where everything aligns for maximum headbanging pleasure the next. When you want something that blends together the relentless picking sprints and savage, caustic vocals a la Kreator or Exodus/Testament, look no further than “Dreamcrusher” – as guitarists Sebastian Unrath and Sebastian Brunner level the aural space in a layered, jackhammer approach. Drummer Adrian Müller fluctuates between double kick-oriented patterns with a variety of groove to speed measures at his disposal – throwing down quick hitting transitions and occasional tricky fills, some of his best work appearing on the shapeshifting, thought-provoking “Long Forgotten Gods”. Keeping the band entrenched in the extreme/underground realms will be the vocal style of Marc Doblinger. His semi-growl, semi-raspy roar is well-aligned to the Lamb of God meets Sodom-style of punishment, evident early on for “Fellowship of Rats” and equally engaging those dirt-encrusted nuances during the slower “Silence Assassin (Champion of War)” that feature some quieter, clean electric passages against the building heaviness.
Favorites change by the day – it’s hard not to get swept up in the tornado-like riff swirl of “Devastator, Devastated” just as much as the adrenaline-fueled relentless nature of opener “Fellowship of Rats”, but it’s also evident that Mortal Infinity understand that as a band, they can’t stay stagnant in one specific gear or tempo map. In Cold Blood succeeds because it never wavers from its stance to produce punishing thrash with death and modern groove aspects that don’t take the need of the individual song for granted.