Band:	Blood Feast
Album:	Infinite Evolution
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	July 12, 2024
A review by:	omne metallum

01. Crafting Carnage
02. Ravaging The Loins Of Mary
03. Never Will I Die
04. Of Hell
05. Eye Of Glass
06. Outbreak
07. The Preacher
08. Evilution
09. The Chosen

More famine than Feast.

2024 is definitely the year for luminaries of thrash to emerge from the shadows in a whirlwind of shredding guitars and clattering drums, putting riffs on record once more. The latest to join this club is New Jersey's Blood Feast, who, despite two strong releases in the '80s heyday of thrash, never hit the heights of their peers. With the release of only their fourth album, Infinite Evolution, it becomes more evident why the band never reached the same heights as their peers.

Unfortunately Infinite Evolution is a step back for Blood Feast, seeing the band devolve rather than make any strides forward. Owing to a combination of performance, production and songwriting, Infinite Evolution will be an album that will get lost in the deluge of releases that is 2024.

Kicking off and promptly falling flat on its face with "Ravaging The Loins Of Mary", Blood Feast will see fans lower their horns and twiddle their fingers instead. While the guitars have a good chainsaw vibe, the rest of the track plods around, rather than asserting itself in any meaningful manner. This is how many of the following tracks go by; "Eye Of Glass" challenges you to see how many times you can roll your eyes before they pop out of their sockets.

While lo-fi production is far from unusual in thrash, and often fits the music, on Infinite Evolution it is grating and off-putting. Kieffer's drums in particular are too high in the mix and have a clattering quality, instead of being booming and propulsive as would better fit the tracks. This hinders the likes of "Outbreak", as the drums take up a large space sonically, and you have to try to listen around them. The production also has the unintended effect of exposing Markovitch's vocals in their raw state here, shining a light on his weaker voice. While they don't undermine any track, they don't assist in improving any either, his hoarse barking doing little to elevate proceedings.

The stars of the show are Tranquilli and Scioscia, who ensure that there is some good guitar work spread across the album, giving listeners something to enjoy and focus on amongst the sonic chaos.  The closing "The Chosen" combines evil atmospherics and powerful riffs to ensure the album leaves the best until last. "Of Hell" follows closely behind as a track to be salvaged from the album and raise pulses.

While it has moments and elements that will entertain you, Infinite Evolution is overshadowed by poor production and performances that leaves much of the album lacking in entertainment value. The best the album can hope for is that it inspires listeners to seek out the band's classic output in Kill For Pleasure.