Belef – Infection Purification
6 years has past since the insanely short, though promising “Deathwind Legion” MCD from France’s Belef and even though they have maintained a caustic black metal styled vocal attack, this new full-length is a blastathon that bears more in common with turbo death and grind than it does bands like Immortal, Mayhem and Marduk as the bio information would suggest. This definitely isn’t a bad thing, other than the fact that the chaos contained on “Infection Purification” is something that is better absorbed in small quantities. Surprisingly, even though the speed and overall delivery is raging over the top, the songs on this disc are all lengthy and over the 4-minute mark which is quite a feat for any musician (mainly the drummer) to maintain. The harsh changes and choppy stop/start transitions point Belef even more clearly into the death/grind area of expression which is great if you like your music dripping with intensity and a sickness that will leave a nasty stain. I will say that I can fully appreciate this style of extreme metal on occasion, but I’m often left cold when faced with a barrage of twisted song structures and the blatant dismissal of melody/in key musical moments that are essential in creating a “song” that will stick with the listener. In Belef’s push to create an extreme blackened metal attack, they have completely disregarded the main staples of the genre. Atmosphere and dissonant harmony. Even the slower moments on this disc are a bizarre concoction of harsh musical phrases that are interesting to the ear, but refuse to be absorbed by the psyche to be remembered. I’m often impressed by the dexterity and technicality of this album, but Belef have given us 8 tracks of flash and aggression that seems to detonate and destroy everything in it’s path rather than offering up actual “songs” that mean something long after the last distorted notes fade off in the distance. “Infection Purification” is an impressive, though largely forgettable mess of an album in light of the musical style the band is claiming to uphold. – Marty
CANDLELIGHT RECORDS
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