On Reborn In Blight (March 6th), the Eastern European collective Insect Inside delivers a parasitic takeover of the senses. Moving away from the polished production of their earlier work, the band settles into a rawer and more visceral sound that mirrors their lyrical obsession with an insectoid uprising.
It is a record that functions as a dark symbiosis by balancing the physical weight of slam with the cold and suffocating atmosphere of brutal death metal and the descent begins with “Echoes Of The Swallowed Sinners”. The song favours a deep and rhythmic rot by looking into the dark chasm of marred human souls. It sets a tone of overwhelming darkness that carries into “Abhorrent Landscape”. The addition of guest vocals from Cephalotripsy’s Angel Ochoa adds a massive weight to the track’s low-end and the music doesn’t just play but it crawls and constricts. Even the shorter “Fragments” feels essential by packing a career’s worth of groove and sinister tension into a two-minute plus window.
The middle of the album focuses on shifting the momentum between speed and stagnation. “Putrid Lament” is a straightforward exercise in slamming brutality, while “Hiveborn Abomination” stands out as a focal point of the record’s aggression. The contribution from Defeated Sanity’s Josh Welshman provides a technical edge that elevates the track’s frantic nature and this contrasts with “Flesh Cathedral,” where the band intentionally slows the pace by stripping away their usual heavy blastbeats to let a heavy groove settle into place instead.
“Carnal Ruins” and the revised intensity of “Parasite Messiah” builds toward the final track “Reborn In Blight”. It is the first time the band truly experiments with guitar solos and a mix of classic death metal speed. It effectively summarises the album’s apocalyptic vision.
Reborn In Blight is a record that starts in the soil and ends with the complete and grotesque domination of the swarm.
