Review: Infant Island Augments Blackened Screamo with Obsidian Wreath
While the whole “blackened scramz” thing isn’t exactly new, what Infant Island bring to the style is a low-end chunkiness seldom heard in black metal or “real screamo”. No, this doesn’t mean metalcore breakdowns—more so added wiggle room for tempo shifts and raw energy. It’s a relatively simple distinction, but it’s enough to give Obsidian Wreath a very refreshing take on the style of many a Deafheaven clone. By combining the dynamic breadth of post-black metal with the chaotic rage of emo-violence, Infant Island carves out a unique place in extreme music.
All of the key elements appear right off the bat on opening cut “Another Cycle,” with melodic riffage commingling with shrill vocal tantrums and explosive drums. The band’s unique balance of grating noisiness and primitive beauty is compelling enough, but the song’s ending reveals that secret weapon of half-time beats and crushing distortion to truly drive Infant Island’s mission’s statement home.
While rawness and black metal remain joined at the hip, it’s refreshing to hear a track like “Unrelenting” that manages to bring that sense of brazen power to post-black metal’s more serene qualities. The wall of tumultuous sound never lets up, but there’s still room for keyboard leads and rousing modulations. It’s also telling that “Kindling” can spend most of its runtime ruminating on a shoegaze meditation without changing the mix and production value. Murky soundscapes and spectral singing work just as easily as blast-beating mayhem, because Infant Island doesn’t use lo-fi production to hide a lack of songwriting chops.
The abject harshness of Obsidian Wreath owes as much to grindcore as it does to black metal, especially in the percussion. The blitzkrieg attack of “Fulfilled” comes with a rhythm section that could just as easily translate to a Rotten soundtrack, but instead drives a salvo of gravely tremolo riffs and discordant anti-grooves. The dissonance only gets more pronounced once the whacking backbeat comes into play, blurring the lines between metal and straight-up noise rock.
Similarly, the passionate tremolo riffage of “Clawing, Still” would move the most seasoned Appalachian black metallers, but the overwhelming atmosphere inevitably divulges into a crushing sludgecore attack. The screamo element ends up being the glue between those two sides, creating a sense of vulnerability that pervades through the most gut-wrenching downtempo sections to the empowering, flowing black metal refrains.
The unfiltered qualities of Obsidian Wreath keep purely ambient tracks like “Found Hand” from losing grit and foreboding. It harks back to a time when shoegaze meant something more challenging to the senses and certainly explains why a slow-burning track like “Amaranthine” can achieve such a sweeping crescendo within such a beastly context. It’s quite refreshing to hear a band in this stylistic nexus bring so much depth and atmosphere while also sounding like they’re about to get noise complaints at a basement show.
Speaking of noise complaints, the drum and bass groove that starts “Veil” would likely get the neighborhood watch bothered. The mixing job on this album leaves two options; loud and very loud. It brings more bones to a genre more associated with treble overload, while simultaneously bringing that controlled chaos of the likes of “real screamo” staples like Heroine and Orchid. Unpredictable chops and distraught vocal wailings, combined with a profound sense of scope, encapsulate the special chemistry between these musicians. The sentiment carries over onto “With Shadow,” as lush string tapestries glide through the intense dynamic shifts while still leaving room for jammy interplay between guitar, bass, and drums.
Indeed, the closing track “Vestygian” shows how much extended instrumentation can find a place within an unbridled climax of enveloping guitar chords and mind-melting percussion. Infant Island makes a point to push their music beyond pure adrenaline, finding nuance and delicacy in the fray. In the end, this only makes the inevitable eruptions that much more satisfying. It’s about time someone broke through the pretensions of scramz, black metal and all manner of hipsterdom to create something as cathartic as it is thoughtful.
Infant Island’s Infant Island is out Jan. 12 via 20 Secret Voice. You can preorder your copy today.
