ANGELCORPSE — The Inexorable (review)

ANGELCORPSE — The Inexorable album cover Album · 1999 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"The Inexorable" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US death metal act Angelcorpse. The album was released through Osmose Productions in September 1999. It´s the successor to "Exterminate" from 1998 and it was the last album in the three-album run in the band´s first active period from their inception in 1995 to their split-up in 1999. The split-up came while on tour with Immortal, Satyricon, and Krisiun, while supporting "The Inexorable". Lead vocalist Pete Helmkamp left Angelcorpse during the tour after a tour van accident, where he was hurt and an incident where his girlfriend was stabbed. So it was not internal turmoil but outside circumstances which meant the end of the band´s original run. The remaining members of Angelcorpse briefly continued without him, but the band soon folded.

Stylistically the 8 tracks on the 34:29 minutes long album continue the brutal and aggressive blackened death metal style of "Exterminate (1998)". The blackened part of the band´s sound is only due to the caustic raspy vocals of Helmkamp, because the instrumental part of the music is fast-paced old school death metal. Sometimes sounding like a faster-paced and ferocious take on artists like Slayer and Dark Angel (the 1986 version of both acts), but most of the time sounding like a more direct, angry, and blasphemous take on early Morbid Angel. The music is incredibly potent and there´s a 100% guarantee of being sonically bludgeoned from listening to "The Inexorable". It´s seldom I´ve hard anything delivered with this kind of determined hateful passion and conviction.

In terms of development since "Exterminate (1998)", there´s been almost none, and the two albums can be considered sibling albums, featuring similar sounding productions (powerful, raw, and perfectly suiting the material), similar sounding material, and the same high quality musicianship. There have been two lineup changes since the predecessor as guitarist Bill Taylor and drummer John Longstreth have left. The former hasn´t been replaced, so Gene Palubicki handles all guitars on the album. The latter has been replaced by Tony Laureano, making the lineup who recorded the album a three-piece.

Like its predecessor "The Inexorable" is an album which wins on attitude and delivery more than it wins on the actual compositions. Not that the material on the album isn´t well written and effective, but it´s ultimately a bit one-dimensional in style, and the tracks are a bit hard to tell apart, even after many listens. But if the premise is to listen to the most fast-paced, blasphemous, and aggressive old school death metal you can get your hands on, then "The Inexorable" more than applies. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.
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