Origin - Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas 2002   Relapse Records   Buy It Now

Do you have any idea how fast you were going?

If Origin were a speeding car, this is the type of thing they would be bound to hear after being pulled over. That is, if you could find any police cruiser that could keep up. Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas is their follow up to their debut album, and needless to say, if you're thinking that it's impossible for a fledging grind-core band to keep up with some of the other heavies in the genre, you're not thinking with a clear head. Forget about any preconceived notions and the fact that the band is from the most unlikely of locations, that being Kansas, Origin brings a new and refreshing flavor to the world of grind.

From start to finish, this is an album that's a sheer speed test and a brutal assault both aurally and even mentally. Time and time again, I wondered just how long drummer John Longstreth could continue the machine-gun style beats, but after nearly 30-minutes, the answer was given; the entire album. I've listened to many a grind album in my days, but I have to say that without a doubt if someone like Mick Harris or Ken Owens were the guys to keep up with when grind-core began to emerge, Longstreth has no only surpassed what they were capable of, he's created a whole new level of skill, and it's probably going to be quite a few years before there is anyone who can even match what he's capable of.

Drumming aside though, Origin musically takes the grind and death musical style to a whole new plain of existence, going for a very technical approach. Unlike many other grind bands that you may have listened to, Origin is a constantly changing organism when it comes to their music. The result means that the songs don't necessarily have any riffs that could be consider "hooks," but then again, a band like Voivod really didn't rely on those too much with either Dimension Hatross of Killing Technology, and those are without a doubt still some of the best metal albums ever recorded. Origin though takes that same concept of technical musicianship and applied it to their craft, taking the grind-core genre to new heights.

Origin also makes good use of the dueling vocalist method of attack. They have not one, not two, but three throats screaming high and low with styles that would be very comparable to newer Cannibal Corpse when taking to mind some of the lower growls and Brutal Truth with the higher end of things. Although you may think that things would get a little confusing with so many people behind the microphone, it's all very well arranged.

This is one of the few grind-core CD's that I absolutely love from start to finish. Every track is fantastic and the flow of the album is perfect and even includes samples thrown in from time to time, something that has become a little more popular with metal over the years and just a decade ago would have been frowned upon. The only problem with the CD though is that it's just too short. I'd love for there to be more cuts, but for most, after the vicious musical battering of nine tracks, anything more would probably put them into a mental coma.

Origin doesn't just set a new bar for grind-core, they utterly decimate it and virtually guarantee that it's going to be a good deal of time before another band comes along that can match what they are doing. If the band continues on the musical path they've already forged for themselves, you can expect to here some fantastic things from them with future releases and this album alone is something that must be owned by any fan of extreme metal.

-mike-