CoC : INRI - Hyper Bastard Breed : Review

INRI - _Hyper Bastard Breed_
(Cold Blood Industries, 2002)
by: Quentin Kalis (7.5 out of 10)

For the past six months I have hardly listened to death metal for reasons I will not go into here. However, I have been listening to INRI (or Insane Non-commercialised Rock Institute to give their full name) more times than is absolutely necessary for the purposes of this review. As to why INRI should represent the break of my death metal fast is not immediately clear -- they are neither breathtakingly innovative along the lines of a Cynic or an Atheist , nor is there a masterful display of guitar virtuosity. What does separate them from the hordes of death metal bands is the highly infectious passion and energy which imbues every single note on this album. The energy is upped by the brevity of the songs, which rarely venture beyond the three minute mark, and are unencumbered by a single note of keyboard tinkling or acoustic strumming -- just pure flat-out brutality. A downer is their Satanic-themed lyrics, which owe more to the frankly infantile rantings of Deicide then to their comparatively more subtle European black metal peers. Do not let the dubious album cover deter you from purchasing this release; this is an excellent death metal record by these relative unknowns who are sure to give the big boys a run for their money.

Contact: info@coldbloodindustries.com

(article published 21/3/2003)