The rare “untextured blood fountain on an archival image” genre of album cover is severely underrated. Something about the abstract violence of it and the clever use of collage just appeals to me. The band pretty much signals that, while they’re extreme and a rough bunch, they have something to say and aren’t completely braindead about how they’re saying it. Inferion certainly makes it clear that they want to appear as extreme, considering that the promo blurb considers this album to be their most extreme material yet. Everything is relative of course and what this tells me is that their debut record – which I have not heard – must have been even more approachable.
Inequity is surprisingly marketable for being on Horror Pain Gore Death, which is one of the best named labels for how well it usually projects which type of metal will be on the label. Inferion do not fit at all, with how consistently mid-paced and decipherable the album is. If you took Amon Amarth but dialed up the groove and made it only ever-so-slightly blackened, you’d have a pretty good approximation of how Inferion sound. I would not say Amon Amarth are fantastic, but at their best (now at least 20 years ago) they had the ability to craft memorable songs from very simple material. Inferion doesn’t have the same grasp on how to craft memorable melody lines, so their trem picked melodies fall flat. Similarly, the vocalist doesn’t have the quality of a Johann Hegg, who has great phrasing and lots of body to his growl, even if his range is severely limited. I think Inferion particularly fail because they want to seem like something they are not. They are not embracing of the simple structures, not going too hard on memorability and they don’t have the emotional profundity to make up for it. As so often, Inferion could be better if they focused on what they do best and did not try to be something they are not.
