Band:	Afterbirth
Album:	In But Not Of
Style:	Brutal death metal
Release date:	October 20, 2023
A review by:	RaduP

01. Tightening The Screws
02. Devils With Dead Eyes
03. Vomit On Humanity
04. Autoerotic Amputation
05. Vivisected Psychopomp
06. Hovering Human Head Drones
07. In But Not Of
08. Angels Feast On Flies
09. Time Enough Tomorrow
10. Death Invents Itself
11. Succumb To Life

Afterbirth have already upped the ante when it comes to forward thinking brutal death metal. Wanna see them do it again?

It's still quite mind boggling to remember for how long have Afterbirth been making brutal death metal. This is a band celebrating thirty years since their inception, although one that remained inactive for more than half of that period, with a two year stint in the nineties and a reunion in 2013. So more like 12 years of forward thinking brutal death metal. But with how their evolution since their reunion has garnered them a lot of acclaim for how versatile and creative they are, it's easy to forget just how far back the band's original stint goes, in a time where brutal death metal was in its infancy, and even though their 90s material, scarce and more direct as it is, still feels fresh considering its context. It would be interesting to think how Afterbirth would've fared out and if they would've remained as forward-thinking if they never broke up, but that's one for the alternate histories. Though tragedy stuck with the death of the band's original vocalist Matt Duncan shortly after their reunion, the band persevered, and 2017's The Time Traveler's Dilemma and 2020's Four Dimensional Flesh became exactly the kind of brutal death metal albums that can become enjoyable for people who aren't fans of the genre.

What really worked about their post-reunion material is that a lot of it is just straight-up brutal death metal, the slamming kind that people who are legitimate brutal death metal fans are into, complete with Will Smith's ridiculously gurgly vocals and with slams and blast beats and all you could possibly want. Another significant element is that the technical aspect of the music was not really brought at the forefront in a flashy way, being more something that's noticeable if you're paying attention. But what really stuck me is when I checked Four Dimensional Flesh is how the group's atmospheric focus, especially in the interludes, ended up recontextualizing the entirety of the music and thus greatly expanding upon what was visible on surface level. What I was hoping for, at that point, was for a way to make that surface level even easier to penetrate and that expansion to dive even deeper.

Happy to say I feel like that's what In But Not Of does. While there's still some direct slamming brutal death metal, that more direct sound has less of a presence on In But Not Of, and I can't imagine someone listening to it while completely oblivious to how expansive it is, the same way I could've for previous albums. That happens in mostly two ways: the atmospheric side has more of a presence outside of the interludes (often through the synth landscapes and the percussion), creating moments like the title track that feel almost post-metal-ish by comparison; and the technical side and the way these melodies sound and progress feels like it pulls a lot more from more melodic sides of music, with some of the riffing sounding like something you might hear in a heavy metal or thrash metal song, but in a context where you do hear a gurgle over it now. This creates a bit of a contrasting feeling that feels a bit more challenging to place in the background. There's a bit of a similar jump to how Tomb Mold went prog on their latest, but Afterbirth do it while sounding very unlike anyone else doing it.

Just like Four Dimensional Flesh, this is a 35 minute album, meaning it passes by like a breeze. The directions it expands in feel even more bold, polished to the core, and probably the closest we've ever gotten to psychedelic brutal death metal (but like in a trippy way not a adrenaline-filled way).