ORIGIN were formed back in 1997 by Paul Ryan and Jeremy Turner (both guitars/vocals), who in the course of time saw the efforts of James Lee (vocals), former ANGELCORPSE drummer John Longstreth (electronic and acoustic percussive distortion) and Mike Flores (bass) added to their own.
Flies buzz at the sound of the heralds of Chaos. Then, suddenly, the whole thing just explodes and you get to listen to the blatant potency deriving from ORIGIN’s music. Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas is the first contact I have with the band, and in all honesty I quite liked it (it figures from the mark). Having read that their debut was something of an immature release and pretty much inconsistent, I never really allowed that to influence my own personal opinion, rather listening to the new attack instead of feeding long-since-dead hype. And, ladies and gentlemen, it was well worth it.
The apparent chaos of Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas is but a close hint at the complexity and coherence of the album as a whole, at its violence and immense sense of relentless absence of compromise with borders and definitions of genres. You could naturally assume that, being ORIGIN the Relapse band they are, they play fast Brutal Death Metal on the Grind edge — and that is very much true. Throughout the album you will certainly find many familiar tunes and/or atmospheres (all of them extremely commendable anyway: ATHEIST, CRYPTOPSY, CEPHALIC CARNAGE, SUFFOCATION amongst others), and the devastating technical Death Metal edge is of course always to be found. Morbid rhythms, as well as some form of transmutated (into much faster, heavier) MORBID ANGEL or VADER standards (or, for that matter, more fluid CANNIBAL CORPSE) are only some of the elements of the band’s sound.
On that note, speed is, so to say, the big highlight of the album, which partly makes this a simply genial release. If you considered Longstreth already a great drummer in ANGELCORPSE, wait and hear what ORIGIN have to offer now and particularly the development in Longstreth’s manner of playing, faster and more creative. As if it were not enough, James Lee is a complete blur of violent and perverse grunting, with great technical details and command of… ahem… grunts.
Hard to say there is any particularly favorite track, but “Portal” and “Implosion of Eternity” definitely gather the necessary ingredients for that effect, with a middle section replenished with more ‘atmospheric’ guitars and percussion. “Mental Torment” is a re-recording of a track from their first album.
If you count the fact that the tracks do not necessarily run the risk of becoming a mass of undistinguished noise (every track having its own characteristics and inherent differentiating elements), the album is sure to set out as a milestone in the band’s (even so) short career. And the layout is also very interesting, not the direct and blatantly gore atmosphere one might at first expect.
Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas is definitely a milestone in the genre, in the fastest league of technical Death Metal. Highly recommended.
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Origin – Larvae of the Lie
Additional Information
ORIGIN’s Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas (2002) marked a significant evolution from their self-titled debut album (2000), which had been criticized for its raw production and somewhat unfocused songwriting. The Latin title translates roughly to “formless, infinite, inhumanity,” reflecting the band’s philosophical approach to extreme music as a vehicle for exploring humanity’s darker aspects.
John Longstreth’s transition from ANGELCORPSE to ORIGIN represented one of the most notable drummer migrations in extreme metal during this period. His blast beat techniques and creative use of electronic percussion elements helped establish ORIGIN as pioneers in the “technical brutal death metal” subgenre that would later influence countless bands.
The album was recorded at Chapman Recording Studios in Lenexa, Kansas, and the improved production values compared to their debut allowed the intricate technical passages to breathe while maintaining the crushing heaviness. The band’s association with Relapse Records provided them with the distribution network necessary to reach the broader extreme metal audience, cementing their reputation as one of the most technically proficient acts in the brutal death metal scene.