Review by Daniel for Dead Infection - A Chapter of Accidents (1995)

Goregrind…. it really is the very definition of a niche subgenre, isn’t it? I mean how many times have you come across a metal fan who claims it as their favourite style of metal? I don’t recall a single instance to be honest however most fans of death metal & grindcore find it to be a bit of fun. Particularly in a live environment. The subgenre was built on the sound of early Carcass in 1987/88 (through their “Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment” demo & “Reek Of Putrefaction” album in particular) but the subgenre didn’t really take off with only a handful of artists carrying the torch through the early 1990’s. Bands like Finland’s Xysma, Sweden’s General Surgery & Regurgitate, Pathologist from the Czech Republic & Impetigo from the USA would all soldier on through the early-to-mid 90’s but it would be a Polish band that would make the most substantial impact.

Dead Infection first formed in 1990 following the implosion of grindcore band Front Terror & would proceed to release a couple of album-length demos in 1991/92 before being picked up by German death metal & grindcore label Morbid Records for the recording of their debut album “Surgical Disembowelment” in 1993. It would go on to become Morbid’s most popular release to the time so one would imagine that the label’s management would’ve been very keen to see a follow-up being released as quickly as possible. It would be a full two years before “A Chapter Of Accidents” would see the light of day though, however it would prove to have been well worth the wait for goregrind fans who still regard it as being amongst the elite releases for the subgenre overall.

“A Chapter Of Accidents” was recorded & mixed at Izabelin Studio in Warsaw, Poland in February & March of 1995 with the band & label sharing the production duties. It would see Dead Infection sporting a brand new lineup with drummer Cyjan & guitarist Tocha now being joined by new guitarist Mały & a dedicated vocalist in Jaro. On “Surgical Disembowelment”, former bassist Kelner had delivered the vocals in a particularly deep but largely traditional death metal style however the introduction of Jaro would prove to be significant as his use of artificial pitch-shifting technology to manipulate the sound of his voice would give Dead Infection a noticeably different feel. The heavily down-tuned guitars that were so evident on the debut are still employed here but to much greater effect thanks to a substantially brighter & less fuzzy tone while the rhythm section have a lot more impact & power. The drums in particular sounded pretty flat & lifeless on the debut but here they have a lot more click & snap to them which emphasizes Cyjan’s violent attack. The overall improvement in sound would be a major win for Dead Infection & it makes for a generally more appealing listening experience.

You won’t discover anything dramatically fresh or new in Dead Infection’s cookie-cutter brand of grindcore. It’s about as goregrind as goregrind gets really but that shouldn't be any surprise to anyone who has been lucky enough to take in the gloriously grotesque cover artwork. Dead Infection's instrumentation relies heavily on the influence of early Carcass, Napalm Death & Terrorizer & the use of blast beats is a particularly major component in their sonic arsenal. Cyjan’s talent for decimating his kit with light-speed, machine-gun style blasting is initially a major attraction for a fan of the more extreme end of metal like myself & it’s refreshing to hear it used in a more organic & less precise manner than we’re used to in more modern times. That human element is something that’s often missing these days & I feel that these imperfections can sometimes play an endearing part in the grindcore ethos. But in saying that, it’d be remiss of me to gloss over the fact that Cyjan’s excessive blasting tends to make for a pretty samey album overall. There’s really very little to differentiate the tracks from each other. Especially as none of the riffs are anything you haven’t heard many times before from the more well-known grindcore exponents I mentioned earlier.

Th other thing that contributes to the samey-ness of “A Chapter Of Accidents” is Tocha’s approach to the “vocals”. I have to admit that the pitch-shifted pig-noise style of goregrind delivery has never been something that I’ve found particularly interesting & I think it limits the appeal of the overall release for me personally. For starters, it takes away any individual personality from the vocal delivery because it’s almost impossible to differentiate one vocalist from another when their voices are manipulated in this manner. And secondly, I don’t think the feeling of aggression & anger that death/grind artists are trying to convey comes across all that well when the vocals don’t sound human & that’s further exacerbated when there’s no attempt to deliver actual lyrics. In fact, I recently read that the lyrics for the album were actually written AFTER the recording took place so they’ve got no correlation with what you’re hearing on the record whatsoever (not that you’d be able to tell anyway). The question has to be asked why they even bothered. Am I the only one that thinks the use of actual words sounds much more aggressive than simply making sounds? It doesn't even matter if they're in a language I don't understand. I think it’s the lack of any message behind the anger that makes it less legitimate.

Anyway, I’m a fan of brutal metal music & this is a particularly brutal example so there’s a lot for me to like here. It’s just that the issues I’ve listed put a cap on how highly I'm ever going to be able to rate it. The length of the album may not seem too long at just 38 minutes but given the lack of variety & the fact that a few of the later tracks are a touch weaker, I think “A Chapter Of Accidents” would have benefited from a little culling. If you chop the four weaker tracks out of the tracklisting I think you’d be left with a more palatable package which inherently doesn’t sound as monotonous due to the shorter length. As it is though, “A Chapter Of Accidents” serves its purpose quite well without ever pushing up into “essential” territory.

For fans of: Regurgitate, Haemorrhage & “Reek Of Putrefaction”-era Carcass.