INFELIX - DREAD OF BEING

INFELIX is the death industrial / dark ambient project from JM Stevens (Lapsed, GotoG, Serpents of the Rainbow). Active since 1999, "DREAD OF BEING" is Stevens' "reaction to the overproduced industrial music of the last couple decades". Inspired by Cioran, Schopenhauer, Thacker, Ligotti, Lovecraft, Dive, The Klinik, Cold Meat Industries, Pain Station, Velvet Cacoon, Xasthur, Synapscape, P.A.L., and Swans as well as lo-fi ambient and black metal, this seven track EP has been released through record label Crunch Pod. Described as not being for the faint of heart as so many other death industrial acts prescribe, "DREAD OF BEING" hails between 



The introductory track, 'Absolute Darkness', was a lift off my chest. A lot of death industrial and dark ambient acts that try to state something such as "THIS RELEASE CONTAINS ABNORMAL AND UNORTHODOX FREQUENCIES THAT MAY OR MAY NOT MUTILATE YOUR AUDIO DEVICES AND/OR YOUR FUCKING SOUL" on their Bandcamp release page (as INFELIX or the associated label has done) tend to release incredibly horrible noise albums that sound the same throughout. However, INFELIX has an understand of how noise, power electronics, and death industrial should sound. Rather than a massive noise wall running for ten minutes straight that loops over and over, 'Absolute Darkness' begins as a slow crawl with shots of bass that sound like a heartbeat. The static noise over the bass slowly leads into a shrieking noise. While this sometimes gets too high pitched for my taste and makes me want to tear off my headphones, the textures are well done and keep the track moving along. 

'Bled White' starts off with beautiful crunchy effects and a droning sensation throughout. The album slowly adds in white noise giving off a feeling of horror. Nonetheless, there's an industrial rhythm underneath all the noise that feeds the machine. This is death industrial done correctly; each layer is cohesive and heard, without ever being overbearing to crush out the other layers. In a sense, it's somewhat meditative. 

An alarm like synth that distorts itself over time begins off 'Dark Material Fire of the Black Sunn', but as the other noise rolls in it becomes another background rhythm. Noisy drones and the like dribble into the song one at a time, with haunted whispers eerily creeping in the background. 'Shadow of the Abyss' takes on dark ambient for a bit and mutilates it with death industrial mechanics; an almost martial rhythm forms under the spacious sound for parts of the song and yet, there's a brief light in the darkness thanks to some of the brighter drones within the track. It sounds as if a constant wind is passing through the song, as if I was stuck in a harsh storm. 'Profound Psychological Violence' continues the onslaught and 'Nocturnal Robe of Obsidian', the finale of the album, sounds like a piece that could be used in a horror film. 

I've two major complaints of the EP, however, and that starts with 'Irretrivably Lost'. While it's not a bad death industrial track and does not commit the primal sin of being overbearing while burying all synthesizer sounds in the ground, it is a rather boring track that doesn't do much texture work in comparison to the other songs. The nine-minute and twelve second length stretched on for what seemed like triple that, and by the end of it I was no longer focused on the release. My second complaint comes in the form of the lengths of some of the tracks such as 'Dark Material Fire of the Black Sunn', 'Shadow of the Abyss', and 'Nocturnal Robe of Obsidian'. I do enjoy the songs, but at times I feel as if it takes forever for the track to move from one section to the next; in order for a death industrial / dark ambient noise track to keep attention, they need to be switching gears every minute or so. I felt as if these tracks either took to long to do so, or kept in similar tidings for too long that I was finding them boring at times. However, once they shifted in a new sound or changed directions, I was immediately caught back into the trap. 

To be frank, death industrial is not a genre for everyone; hell, even I rarely find myself listening to it as the amount of bedroom producers who think that a noise wall or a running tape loop is enough to be death industrial is through the roof at the current time. I would know; I've received many of them throughout my time on Brutal Resonance and most are rather bothersome. However, projects such as INFELIX understand the importance of texture work and a balanced mix in their sound; never throughout "DREAD OF BEING" did I feel as if INFELIX was attempting to make noise just to make noise. There's an artistry behind their noise and I appreciated it. My major complaints still stand, however; I skip 'Irretrievably Lost' on every successive play of the EP and I find a couple of the longer tracks in need of momentum or a few cuts. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with "Dread of Being" and, in fact, did not have my audio devices or my soul mutilated. Six-and-a-half out of ten! 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Nov 02 2021