It's sad when an otherwise decent album is ruined by one particular, nagging drawback that brings the entire project down. Such is the case with the latest release from brutal & technical death metal act Inherit Disease, titled Ephemeral on Unique Leader. Featuring 11 songs of crushing power, the album clearly shows the California band fully competent in delivering extreme metal that can obliterate anything in its path. However, the ridiculous grunts of vocalist Obie Flett are just that, completely ridiculous, way too high in the mix and coming across like a rabid pig, burping & gurgling whatever it is he's trying to get across over plenty of blast beats and thunderous riffs. It's hard to concentrate on anything else but Flett's grating delivery, as he overpowers everything going on here. In addition, the blast beats are a tad monotonous at times, with the drums sounding like they were recorded in someone's garage, and while the guitar riffs are huge, they are lost in the mix and lack variety. Basically, if you've heard one song on Ephemeral, you've heard them all, and despite many of these tracks being quite massive & powerful, they all sound so similar to each other. Take away the silly grunts of Flett, and you have an album that is clearly no classic, but for fans of brutal death metal is worth a listen.
Track Listing
1. Spiritual Paralysis
2. Mutant 2.0
3. Divergence
4. Synaptic Reanimation
5. Ephemeral Morality
6. Binary Alchemy
7. Neotroglodyte
8. Pixelated Hallucinations
9. Digested By Invertebrates
10. Lord Cyborg
11. Drone