Invection - Facet of Aberration [2011]

Invection, a thrash band hailing from the US, have been playing furious thrash since 2007. Their debut, “Facet Of Aberration," explores the territory of modern thrash metal and successfully injects different styles into its songs. They’re all undeniably thrash, and heavy thrash at that, but they are able to conjure up some wicked riffs that vary from being melodic to all-out thrash and some that are more groove influenced as well.

The album starts by showing off to you their skills as musicians. It’s fast, it’s catchy, it’s furious. The drummer is, as shown throughout the rest of the album, very fast with his use of double bass. The guitars will also immediately catch your attention. “Impulsive Violence,” the first track on the record, is among the more thrashy tracks in this album. In addition to having it’s cool lead work, it mixes fast riffs with relatively slower ones. Many of the tracks on here have an undeniable groove influence, and while with some bands that’s not always a good thing, Invection pull it off more than well--as their subtle and sporadic use of it only serves to make the songs that much catchier and that much more fun.

Invection, as previously stated, are able to infuse different styles into their overall thrash sound. Some songs, such as “Formication” or "As The Locust Starve," are noticeably much more melodic than other ones. The shouting vocals help contribute to the already catchy riffs, having more of a hardcore punk influence than anything else. They, at times, may appear to be in the background as they’re somewhat lower in the mix, but they’re there and they’re pretty hectic. The vocalist definitely sounds pissed off--that’s how vocals should always sound in thrash.

Now, the use of double bass, especially when used excessively, can be a tricky thing. If you’ve got a thrash album that doesn’t have very fast double bass throughout its songs but it does only in a few key places, you’ll surprise the listener and make him go “Whaaa? Awesome!”--but if the entire album is dominated by fast double bass, at times it may come off as redundant and the listener will take it for granted. There’s no way this will cloud your judgment, as it’s in theory anything but bad, but you may find yourself losing interest in the drummer after a while.

Invection have pulled off a thrash album that contains various styles, including more melodic and technical songs, all-out thrashers, ones that have groove-influenced riffs, as well as ones that mix all the styles perfectly. It’s a very fun album and you’ll find yourself putting it on play quite a few times. If at first it doesn’t click, it’ll grow on you. It did with me.

79/100

-SmithMetal84