Irreversible Mechanism – Infinite Fields
Ask any hardworking musician about the secret to their success (or lack thereof), and they’ll probably tell you the same thing: the music has nothing to do with it. Every day, struggling artists barely reap any spoils or fruits from their labour, while others seem like they have the world handed to them on a plate—and it’s the truth: the music has nothing to do with it. Popularity and exposure is more reliant on your PR guy than your time and effort to make something meaningful. You could tour your arse off with a band and release an album that’s fresh, innovative and amazing—but it wouldn’t get you as far as a session drum performance by Lyle Cooper and album art by Pär Olofsson, all tied up with the promotion of the underground’s newest favourite, indescribably hardworking label Blood Music.
Irreversible Mechanism is a technical death metal band from Belarus, and their current sweeping success is a subject of circumstance, rather than hard work or talent…or lack thereof. This isn’t meant as a slight to the band, as I’m sure the duo put a great amount of effort and hard work into creating their debut album Infinite Fields, but it’s merely an observation. The band originally released the album last year, but it was only available for about twelve hours before it was taken down and revealed that these then-relatively unknown Belarusians were snapped up by Blood Music. Since then, Blood Music has taken the reins, hyping Irreversible Mechanism as the new critical darlings in technical death metal, making promises of ground-breaking material that will blow listeners away, and further boasting the aforementioned drum “wizardry” of Lyle Cooper—for those who are unaware, Lyle Cooper is the ex-drummer of metal’s favourite mainstream progressive/technical death metal band The Faceless.
And so, here we are. With steady support from a well-respected label, promotion from metal media outlets left, right and centre and enough “big names” to shake a stick at, what was originally two guys nobody had ever heard of has turned into the new big name in technical death metal. But is it really all so well-deserved?
In short, the answer is, well, “no.”
Irreversible Mechanism is another cog in the machine. Where less spoiled, but much more notable technical death metal bands like Apocrophex and Heaving Earth have flown under the radar this year, Irreversible Mechanism’s circumstance has let them soak up the glory. Let’s make this clear: this isn’t a bias against Irreversible Mechanism. They were swept off their feet by Prince Charming and their circumstance was a very fortunate one for them; the band isn’t at fault here. The only kick in the nuts here is to the fan that wanted something more from what everyone’s been peddling. Irreversible Mechanism isn’t a terrible band, it’s just that their brand of synthetic technical death metal is played out. Nothing here is new, nothing here is fresh, and nothing here is really worth much time. While many listeners will be pleased as punch to have a smooth, melodic, technical metal album laced with over-the-top symphonics and plenty of blast beats, there are a sparse few who will ask, “is that it?”
My main grievance with the record is the symphonics, which in some cases would add a nice atmosphere to the music, but on Infinite Fields is completely lacklustre. The poorly produced synths don’t sound ambient or atmospheric, they sound rather tacky. They would be much less of a problem if they weren’t the most constant aspect of the album, the band clearly insisting upon the listener that they’re inspired by classical music—which would mean a great deal more if the death metal itself actually consisted of any classical composure, but instead chooses to be paired awkwardly with the symphonics rather than working in tandem with them. The metal itself is fairly solid, even if completely standard. Tremolo riffs flurry the listener and every now and then an interesting lick will catch your ear or a nice melody will stay with you for a short while, but overall, there’s nothing worth mentioning here. There are no unique elements employed, nor any new takes on an old formula.
With all the hype and mention of Lyle Cooper’s drum performance on this album, you can be forgiven for thinking he might bring something interesting to the table, but without his name here, the drumming wouldn’t cause anyone to bat an eye. Cooper provides nothing but a solid performance of blast beats, basic fills and every other typical drum technique found within this genre. He rarely has anything worthwhile to add to a composition, which might be because the band themselves wrote the drum parts and Cooper was merely there to play them. Ultimately, his presence on this album is felt only as a name, which is desperately slathered over every article you will read about Irreversible Mechanism.
Vladislav Nekrash and Yaroslav Korotkin—the two composers and real names behind Irreversible Mechanism—can’t be faulted for their tight compositions and what is, overall, a solid technical death metal album. But it’s just not enough, and they can only rely on the crutch of having big names attached to their project for so long. There are capable musicians here, but after thirty-nine minutes, it’s hard to feel excited or engaged by much of what happened during Infinite Fields. Truly just another modern technical death metal album, marred by poorly produced synthetic classical ambiance and its failure to meet with any of the expectations so carelessly flung upon it.
