Mike and Horror Pain Gore Death Productions are at it again, causing trouble with the fourth album from Spain’s Caustic, and in my opinion, their best album. It’s been a while since their last album, Hate Generation, from 2015. That album upped the game in sheer intensity from the band. They have now one-upped that with this monster of an album. Some new faces to the band with Pol on drums and Ismael Luna on guitars. I must say, Roger Moreno has quite the set of pipes, as well. Rounding out the band is Xavi Brossa on bass and José Polo on guitar. 10 songs in 35 minutes, any more time on the clock would have caused a nuclear meltdown.
“Dead Mind Job” gets things underway with the bap, bap drums and right into a scorching blast beat. Nifty guitar work, and those drums resonate with me, as if he captured Suffocation’s former drummer, Mike Smith, and said show me your blast techniques. Some slowdowns resemble early Suffocation as well. About midway through, there is a guitar solo, with some melody and tempo shifts going from mid-pace to blast. The song slows again, and an even better, more intricate guitar solo takes center stage. The song slows even more with Roger laying down some excellent vocals. He does a decent job with his enunciation. The isolated guitar riff at the 3.15 timestamp, which is then replicated over the blast beat, is pure vintage Suffocation. Excellent album opener.
“Sleeping on Adrenaline” allows the bass guitar to get some love. Beginning with isolated bass guitar plucking, it’s then off to more blast beats and some tempo shifts with scorching heavy moments, then right into the blast. The isolated guitar riff, right before this blast, I do think, rather than going into the blast, the band should have hit a groove. The impact would have been devastating. Once again, guitar solos make their way into this song and are above average. They are placed in some really good areas, too.
The title track has a slow buildup, getting louder and louder. The music hits and booms right into the death metal blasting madness. Double pounding at the one-minute marker takes us back to early 90’s classic death metal. The guitar riffing and, most importantly, picking technique are clean and really well done. Stop and start blasting is also incorporated within. We even get some dissonant blasting taking us into Immolation territory. This is a super cool song.
“Maggots”, a short little ditty of a number, ends the album with some old school death thrashing speed, then right into the old Suffo type of blasting. There are some cool drum rolls and very tight blast beats. The riffing over the blast is fairly fast, too. Towards the end of the song, we get some 90’s era pinch harmonics, which tie in perfectly to the blend of old and newer school death metal that Caustic plays.
Inner Deflagration is a fun death metal album from Caustic. The production is warm, and the songs flow evenly. I would like to see some slower moments incorporated. When they hit an isolated guitar riff, at times, it would be better suited to go for a groove. There are cool tempo shifts throughout this album and a fair amount of melody, but a groove bordering on a slam is called for to break up some of the incessant blasting at times.
Overall, as death metal goes, it’s always a plus to see a band continue improving on each release, and that is what we have going on here. Caustic deserves a chance to be in your rotation, you will not regret it at the gym!
