EP Review: Promo EP

If you’re looking for some great metal music, you’ve come to the right place. Hardworking up-and-coming band Parasitic Infestation, who specialise in Brutal Death Metal, are set to make your ears bleed with their latest promo release, consisting of three deliciously heavy songs (plus bonus tracks) that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

The intro track, Hangman, is a very short but sweet taste of what Parasitic Infestation has to offer. Brutal in every respect of the word, blast beats are only surpassed by a superlative guttural vocal style that absolutely slays.

You might find the overabundance of samples on the second track, With Intent, to be a bit cheesy. But this is easily made up for by some of the heaviest music you’ll ever hear. Firing on all cylinders, the entire band is working in perfect sync here, with numerous timing changes and vocal inflections to keep you fully engaged.

For a release that is largely self-produced, this is pretty high-end-sounding stuff. The mix is impeccably detailed, even with the vocals soaking up most of the limelight. Being so out front would only be detrimental if singer Liam Hand didn’t have all the goods going on. But his growls come from the very bowels of Hades itself. Similar to Becoming The Entity’s Christian Trejo or Purulence of Sputum’s Ruslan Falaleev, Hand’s practiced vocal style is rightly pushed high in the mix.

Tending slightly towards the more Slam side of Brutal Death, Destructive Compulsion follows on nicely with the same earth-shaking energy, with the added benefit of deeper reverse growls and even more precise fills.

The cohesiveness displayed throughout this tasty EP means you could stack Parasitic Infestation up against any death metal act you’d like to mention and be pleasantly surprised at how well they compare. That’s one reason why they’ve recently been called upon to open for legends in the metal world, Suffocation.

While riffing and song structures are pretty straightforward, vocal and drum embellishments make for a highly listenable release. Is it as heavy as the band’s previous work, namely Intergalactic Harvest and its associated singles? Not quite. But you should still make some room in your playlist for the more produced sound these five guys from Auckland have developed over the last couple of years.

Parasitic Infestation has hit another home run with a release that you’ll definitely want to check out today.