Like Sectu’s Nefarious, the Third album from Greece’s Mass Infection is unfortunately liable to get a little bit lost in the early summer/spring deluge of killer death metal namely the stuff Unique Leader releases. Which is a shame as Comatose and Mass Infection have released pretty damn solid death metal record in For A am Genocide.
Not as brutal or tech as some of he recent Unique Leader stuff, Mass Infection deliver a quality version of death metal that resides firmly in the American style akin to Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and such. It’s brutal and its technical but not too extreme in either category, being largely and safely Floridan in its melding of tech and brute force. A nice, squeaky clean production cements the influence with crisp guitars and a crystal clear drums, but as with most Floridian and American death metal of the 90s and 00’s, the bass is a bit underwhelming and twiddly.
The 9 songs hit a sweet spot, 35 minute run time with little fanfare or bullshit. All of them mix ample heaps of high speed, twisting riffage mixed with a few solid slower segments and standard deep growls. None of it is earthshaking or ground breaking though there is an admirable tightness and clinical ferocity to all of the songs, heck even the instrumental number “Nihilism Reigns” is a damn fine track, and I’ve never been a fan of instrumental death metal.
Standouts include album’s two bookends, short, blistering opener “Praised by the Entities” and the closing 6+ minute number “The Genocide Revealed” as well as the second track “The Scourge of Living Forms” with is twisty slower intro riff, “Hierarchy of the Highest Abomination” and “Unearthly Legion” both delivering nice mixes of sharp stop start riffs and militatn marches.
