Infernal Coil - Within a World Forgotten

Man I have been itching to talk about this one for a long time now. Ever since hearing the pulverizing storm of thick guitars, blast beats, and cavernous vocls “Crusher of the Seed” about a month or so before this album’s release, I was excited for this thing. I had never heard of Infernal Coil before, and as it turns out, that’s because the duo (who go by Folús and Blight) had only released one EP (Burning Prayer of Infinite Hatred) back in 2016, which presented a bold and rather close to fully-fledged sound that quickly got them signed to Profound Lore to release their debut full-length, Within a World Forgotten. Their EP presented a confident portrait of a band who knew exactly what they wanted to do with death metal. Offering up a thick, but spacious blend of death metal, sludge, and grindcore, Infernal Coil made very clear of their disinterest in balancing their extremity with too much melody of groove to make it more digestible, channeling the deathly sludge of Primitive Man’s most recent effort (Caustic) as well as the cavernous growls of something like Leviathan’s Scar Sighted.

Well on their debut LP, Infernal Coil head only further into the extreme and unbalanced realm of grinding death metal they were working in on their 2016 EP. I just mentioned earlier hearing traces of Leviathan on their EP, but on Within a World Forgotten, those similarities, to Scar Sighted especially, have been magnified with more dissonant guitar passages and even more maddening echoed howls of death, and I’m not complaining. Bearing very notable resemblance to two of my favorite albums of the past 3 years, I was definitely inclined to have at least some fondness for this album. And it certainly delivers everything that Profound Lore was probably hoping the band would after hearing their self-released EP, but also shows the band displaying a wider array of talents than what the confines of their 13-minute EP allowed.

The first three songs (“Wounds Never Close”, “Continuum Cruciatus”, and 
“Crusher of the Seed”) are a merciless grind of ripping, haunting death metal that I could see either Wrest or Primitive Man being proud of,and the band wastes no time standing on ceremony, kicking off the minute-fifty-three opening cut, “Wounds Never Close”, within the first second into a harsh and pessimistic void of reflective suffering. The song’s lyrics speak of a dread of some metaphoric fatal, inevitable wound that could be seen as a foresight into humanity’s future downfall, and the punishing instrumentation certainly embodies such an infliction. “Continuum Cruciatus” only furthers the lyrical despair of the first track with a slightly more contemplative tone, but of a death no more tranquil as Folús writes “cleave us blood beyond our blood, drown me in the river it creates”. This song is a bit more nihilistic black metal where the intro track was grindcore, but it’s worked in smoothly by way of the duo’s continuously apocalypse-summoning performances. The third track, “Crusher of the Seed”, paints a similarly prophetic and critical picture of humanity, referring to the death of “beings of no peace” amid a never-ending onslaught of blast beats, deep growls, and wave after crushing wave of low-tuned guitar distortion.

On the fourth song, the nearly ten-minute “49 Suns”, Infernal Coil continue to direct their lyrical attack on humanity’s obliviousness to its own impending doom, as shown by the opening line: “To see this hell for what it really is…the vast murmurous gloom of dreams”. But amid the song’s terrifying echoes of metallic darkness, the band also play with more dynamic shifts and even find a way to work in a quieter, yet similarly melancholic ambient and acoustic guitar section as the second half of the song that does well to contribute to rather than detract from the cacophonous grind surrounding it.

The band jump right back into their blistering grind of sludge and death with “Reflection of Waldeinsamkeit”. The German word in the title refers to a specific feeling of solitude associated with being alone in the woods, but Folús’ meditations are hardly serene. The opening line of the song seems to be him speaking to the natural world around him in a willingness to die in payment for what humanity has done to it: “my sacrifice for the torture you endure”. The song ends with him sinking into this sacrificial melancholy: “my eyes close to dream of the ashes I will become.” The instrumental is driven by the rumble of a down-tuned guitar and Blight’s pummeling blast beats and tom work, while both band members continue to build horrifying echoes of agonized screams.

“Bodies Set in Ashen Death” continues the album’s assault and maintains its menacing atmosphere but also incorporates a surprisingly synchronous riff near its beginning and end as it makes its portrayal of mankind’s demise more upfront in the lyrics detailing the decay of the human form, with Folús asking, “Where does your faith lie, as we behold the overwhelming disease of selfishness.” The duo work in another very Leviathan-esque clean guitar passage complete with eerie echoes of whispered defeatism about halfway through the track.

The closing song, “In Silent Vengeance”, opens with a tense, ominously distorted spoken work passage amid thick, dark ambiance The band seems to draw out their punches on this final track, and it is a fitting choice, as Folús’ lyrics deal with the welcoming of humanity’s end, with Folús writing “the shackles of our soul lie broken as we taste man’s last choking breath”. The track ends with echoes of frail weeping amid the unsympathetic howling of wind that seems to resemble the aftermath of Earth’s forceful and remorseless purge of mankind.

Within a World Forgotten finds Infernal Coil chronicling the demise of humanity at the hands of the world it casually abuses and destroys under the guise of entitlement, through a sludgy death metal heaviness so unrelenting it completely fills and becomes the atmosphere. While the homogeneity of this album might certainly be a flaw on album of another style (i.e. Satan’s latest effort), the consistent instrumental approach is kind of the point on this album, and its main means of conveying its atmosphere. And considering the ruthlessly defeatist lyricism across the album, it’s a fitting and constructive choice. While it might be clear that what the band is writing about is something I also find very important, I do feel it is important to make clear my own thoughts about humanity’s impact on the natural world. While we do have a great responsibility as the Earth’s most ecologically impactful species to do well to mitigate our negative and potentially cataclysmic effects on the rest of life here, a defeatist approach like what is portrayed here is not something I would ever advocate, and I imagine the band probably don’t feel that way either, but find worth in matching the extremeness of that approach with their music, as do I. As for us and our environmental impact, let’s continue to strive to make it better. And as for Infernal Coil, congratulations on a fantastic debut record.