Angelcorpse - The Inexorable
Between the years 1993 and 1999, Death Metal had slid from a noticeable decline into a full on nosedive, in both terms of creative impetus, and also artistic relevance on a scale larger than simply loud thunder music. Much of what was left of the American wave had devolved into low brow, ham-handed self parody, while a majority of their European scene had morphed into some limp-wristed variant of gothic rock. The majority of the known scenes had failed, with Death Metal being largely a fading memory in Florida, and Sweden living in the wake of “Sthlaulter of the Sthoul”, while New York was churning out the Suffocation meets Cannibal Corpse style of brutal bounce metal at a frantic pace that only increased as the years passed. Removed from all that, from Kansas of all places, is where one of the last great ventures into the American/Floridian style of Death Metal finds its genesis.
The Inexorable is the defining moment for Angelcorpse, and one of the few crowning moments as the aeon of Death Metal came to its end. It exemplifies everything the preceding two albums had attempted, increasing the nuance, technical prowess and intensity to the physical limits of the style. As readily discernable, Angelcorpse draw their primary influence from the undefeated champions of Death Metal, Morbid Angel, especially from the style forwarded by Altars of Madness and adapted on with Covenant. Where there is the tendency to write them off as a trivial, even soulless clone at first, further listening reveal that Angelcorpse aims for something entirely different. Morbid Angel was a neo-classicist, organically esoteric and spiritual experience, where the aesthetic of Angelcorpse is constructed around a barbaric fascination with warfare and a mechanized assault on Christianity, so much so that the modern crop of bands masquerading as “warmetal” undoubtedly turn to Angelcorpse as a primary facilitator. Morbid Angel was influenced by Mozart, Pink Floyd, Slayer, Possessed, and Satan; Angelcorpse is influenced by Slayer, Sodom, Possessed, Satan and Morbid Angel. In the space where Angelcorpse lack in the Ancient and unknown mystic ambience of Azagthoth, a Germanic speed-metal base replaces it with the reckless and unforgiving obsession with the art of riffcraft, a talent at which Angelcorpse’s overwhelming excellence is absolutely undeniable.