Rating: 8.4

Country: France

Genre: Death/Grind

Record Label: Grind Your Soul

Release Date: 2009

Track list:
1. Human ?
2. Hellmaze
3. Whisper
4. Bleârgh !
5. Ecotone I : The Tree
6. 21 Grammes
7. The Glance
8. It's Back
9. Dig !
10. Addicted
11. Ecotone II : The Ocean
12. Flames
13. I Want to Kill Some...(Part V)
14. Art,Sex,Intelligence
15. Obey
16. Ecotone III : The Sphere
17. Mic Crusher
18. 59 Seconds
19. It's Back (Bonus)

Total playing time 33:55

Band Website: Inhumate

Inhumate - The Fifth Season

Christophe - Vocals
Damien - Guitar
Fred Anton - Bass
Yannick - Drums

After a gap of half a decade, Inhumate release their fifth album in their series of seven. In their early years this French band was more death metal than grindcore. But they evolved with each album, injecting more grind influences into their music to achieve an optimum balance between the two genres and rightly so: the death metal influences seemed to weigh it down. After floundering initially, Inhumate finally found best expression of their death/grind music in their third output, Growth. It showcased the best aspects of the genres, the fiery intensity of grindcore as well as the heft of death metal, with excellent hooks and massive stomp parts and breakdowns. Its short, catchy and powerful songs with a very forceful delivery were comparable to Blood (albeit not as disciplined, Inhumate being much more fun-inclined) but on a whole Inhumate's music could be described as a mix of Napalm Death circa early ‘90s, first albums by Terrorizer and Brutal Truth and beefy death metal influences. Not content with the sound on their landmark album, the progression continued and on their fourth album Life, Inhumate made it streamlined and more cohesive while retaining the bulbous death metal parts. The Fifth Season is basically a continuation of the music on Life, except that with the rest even the death metal chunks are grinded and melted to be moulded into songs.

To say The Fifth Season sounds crisp would be an understatement. It sizzles like a shrieking cat with a live electric eel wrapped around it on a hot frying pan. The level of intensity too is turned to the max here it seems. Grindcore influences seem to dominate this album. Perhaps Inhumate realised that with their music grounded in death metal, it prevented them from becoming unhinged, which is regarded as a trait if not a necessity by most grind bands. But Inhumate also understand that it is their consummate blend of the two genres that makes their music appealing in the first place and have therefore retained sufficient amounts of them; it is just impeccably integrated into the music which reduces the obvious distinction between the death and grind parts. Now the deathly sledgehammer blows come without the maddening crowd of grinding chaos making way for it. The death metal influences also give it stability and direction, so unlike most grind bands, Inhumate's music is not rudderless to say the least. Cathartic grind parts are normally followed by drilling or pounding death metal riffs or hooks, which are no longer sluggish and in fact keep you engaged. What makes it all work is the superb arrangement.

Christophe is a fantastic vocalist with a wide range and his unrelenting barrage of grunts, screams, squeals, sobs, hysterical laughter, etc. livens up even the dull parts. He is very enthusiastic and dedicated, and has put his pair of lungs on the line (not to mention his head during the live shows, for he is the “Mic Crusher” and this album even has a song about that). His delivery is not commonplace either; if you think his old Brutal Truth-esque (but more powerful and intense) vocal tradeoffs are impressive, check out his colourful delivery in “Dig!” In “It's Back” he is inconsolable for some reason and actually keeps bawling throughout the song. Last track is kind of a bonus remix of that one, performed by Weepers Circus who employ cello and turn it epic and awesome and end the album on a high note. There is variety on offer here that will interest even the newer grind fans. Without compromising on their intensity and established sound, Inhumate keep the music interesting and relevant. Inhumate know how to have some serious fun and they sure don't look goofy or puerile in the process.

If you thought Inhumate were like a menacingly charging fully-loaded diesel truck with little scope of doing stunts, sticking to its path and always having to keep the accelerator depressed to create any movement whatsoever, on The Fifth Season imagine the same truck, only coming at you downhill, this time with loads of speed, momentum and grunt. Before you can run or leap sideways, it will already have rammed into you, crushed 150 or so bones in your body, and lodged you on its ugly grinning bumper. The Fifth Season is a terrific album and yet another a classic example of Inhumate's near perfect blend of death and grind music.

September 6, 2009