✦✦✦✧ Five years after Vile Genesis, Inferi return with a reshuffled lineup: Malcolm Pugh now covers bass too (Andrew Kim having decamped to Brand Of Sacrifice), and this is drummer Spencer Moore’s swan song before joining Archspire. You can hear why they wanted him; there’s a definite Archspire vibe running through this thing.

✦✦✦✧ These Tennesseean techdeath titans have done it again: ridiculously tight shredding at blistering speeds. The danger with this kind of approach is that it is apparently easy to misbalance things and totter over into self-indulgent forgettability (I say “apparently” as I’m not nearly the musician that these folks are). But this time around, they show just enough restraint to help the album avoid problems with pacing or tedium.

✦✦✧✧ An album length of 22 minutes might seem a little skimpy, but that doesn’t stop these tech death shredders from cramming an hour’s worth of riffs into it. It’s blistering fun at a million miles an hour, of course, but the listening experience is a little like doing shots; I can’t remember much after it’s all done, but I feel like I got hit by a truck anyway.

✦✦✦✧ Epic technical death metal that utterly shreds in the moment, but somewhat fails to stick in one’s memory. Also, it goes on and on and on. Still, it’s blistering and super impressive. These guys definitely put in the work (there’s probably something like a quarter million notes on this album, no exaggeration)!

★★★☆ This album is massive. It’s wall-to-wall unstoppable high-speed technicality that’s as much prog as it’s death metal. It may go on a bit long, but it’s still an enjoyable ride through and through.