Infected - Crawlspace

Yes, it sure is a mad world out there. Endless wars are being fought and endless lives are being lost, all without a greater reason. But then most of these people are victims of forces beyond their control. However the guys who chose to make music on these issues are not. Expressing all these thoughts in a unusual mix of industrial and death metal, Crawlspace is Aussie act Infected's remastered release of their second offering by the same name.

The hybrid of industrial and death elements in Crawlspace is unusual to a large extent. Mostly because the songwriting is not strong enough to incorporate industrial elements to a death metal structure. Also missing is the lack of direction in the album which is clearly evident when one notes the oddly timed tempo changes and cameo-role of guitar solos which come out of nowhere and leave without a trace as in tracks like Truthkill, Assimilate and Never. But as one proceeds in the album, one thing becomes clear Infected are pretty much in the vein of Fear Factory. Except the guys in Infected have a knack of playing at a milder pace than their well known counterparts.

First half of the album is played in a morbid style of death metal where the guitarist Mathew Jefferson belts out riff as though they're coming out of a maze without any sense of purpose and direction, aimlessly colliding with an equally raw sounding basslines from John Campbell. The keyboards and the clean vocals are definitely out of the place in the album which once again gives the feeling as though the whole purpose of the album;s existence seem out of place. Industrial element comes in the latter half of the album in Assimilate and Never and its very much like early Fear Factory. Needless to say the tracks are mostly listenable in their beginning until they complicate things by making things more technical and complex.

Lyrics are truly a strong point of the album and they almost have a poetic feel to it - 'Watch the honey drip from their tongues/It will turn to shit once they've won'. In fact the high sense of despair that carries along with the lyrics almost give it a very Kafkaesque edge to it. Sadly the music wasn't strong enough to guide in that direction and Infected have truly made a glorious asshole of themselves in the album. Approach it at your own risk.