Replicant – Infinite Mortality Review

[Cover art by Alli Tuttle]

Have you ever hung out with a dumb, smart person? You know, the kind of person that will blow your mind by saying one of the most compellingly intelligent things you’ve ever heard and then immediately break your brain because they have no idea how to work a toaster. I’m talking about the kind of person you spend an hour with, and then you go, “How the hell does this person get by on a daily basis? Also, I’m terrified of what they might achieve in certain industries.” Well, Replicant is the music equivalent of that anomalous individual we’ve all met at least once. Listening to the entire 45 minutes of Infinite Mortality is like being dumb enough to punch a hole in a wall but then immediately having the detailed know-how to perfectly stitch all wounds and set all broken bones without looking anything up.

The most immediate comparison that will pop into your head is Gorguts and not just because of the Lemay-inspired gruff and wily vocals. No, Replicant is like if Gorguts felt groove was as vital as dissonance and then filtered that formula through a slam mentality. Infinite Mortality is brutal and br00tal while slapping some swag on it.

CONTENT WARNING!!!

This album may contain whirling dervish bedlam, stuttering rhythms, driving tremolo deathly goodness, an early-2000’s Meshuggah riff, slick grooves, hideous drunken leads, slow chugging chord abuse, pure blasting insanity, gloriously unhinged vocals vomiting all over a drag-out fist fight of a beatdown, and strange alien laser noises firing and echoing across your ears.

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Wow, that’s so many kickass things to have on one album.” You’re right, of course, but I was only talking about what happens in the FIRST GODDAMN TRACK. Click play on that bad mammajamma whilst you read the rest of this gibberish.

What if, in addition to the above warning, I told you Replicant can also somehow pull off layering proggy elements into a chugging beating and groove-laden smoothness all at once? And what if they fired off one of the wonkiest, booziest riffs you’ll ever hear, but it will stumble out of the song as quickly as it appeared? Or that they created a passage that sounds like Gigan banging Pink Floyd after snorting a pound of angel dust? Tricked ya again; that all happens just in “Reciprocal Abandonment!”

Speaking of “Reciprocal Abandonment,” let’s chat about my other favorite element of dumb smart guys on display here – the song titles. There is pure, glorious death metal nonsense among the likes of “Orgasm of Bereavement,” “Nekrotunnel,” “Planet of Skin” and “Shrine to the Incomprehensible.” You know what else is incomprehensible on album number three? James Applegate’s drumming, that’s what. Put on “Shrines to the Incomprehensible” and just try to keep up. Like attempting to headbang with George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, you simply cannot.

One of the things that helps this style of music survive is the brevity of each part. Every song is a tightly knit collection of wild ideas that put the listener in a blender so that every time you think you have it figured out, they slice you in a new way. Replicant writes music for people with the attention span of the internet age. You might think a 45-minute runtime or nine-minute closing track would then be a detriment, but constantly shifting to new elements makes every moment something to savor and listen to again and again. A longer track like the opener is just as capable of keeping you hooked and flying by in the blink of an eye as a short track like “Dwelling on the Threshold.” Even all nine minutes of “Planet of Skin” will keep you enthralled because it slowly batters you down with repeated parts just before coming out of left field with a sexy little passage that pulls from the Oranssi Pazuzu playbook. Who would even think of putting space exploration notes in the middle of a Demilich song? Four lunatics from New Jersey getting their brains rattled by earthquakes, that’s who!

My advice to you, be smart and get dumb with Infinite Mortality right now.