You ever hear of In-Quest? Yeah, neither did I. The band apparently is the technical death metal outfit of Sven from Aborted and Leng Tch’e. Well, to be more appropriate, it was his band. Not too long ago Sven quit the band. So keep that in mind before I move on.

These guys have several albums and have gotten quite a bit of praise under their belt already yet still the motherfuckers somehow eluded my attention. Oh well, that happens quite often. So, what does In-Quest sound like? Well, not what I was expecting from a band that gets called "the technical death metal project of Sven from Aborted and Leng Tch’e." You hear that association and you expect something a lot more brutal because… well… let’s face it: it’s Sven. What you get greeted with is a mesh of Meshuggah-esque technicality, Obscene Eulogy over-lapping melodies and ambience, and some horrible nu-tinged metalcore vocals. It’s not technical in the sense where you expect to hear insane complexity and speed meshed together like in a Suffocation or Immolation release, but rather it’s complex and technical in the melody and structure itself.

Yeah, that’s a lot different from what I was expecting. A fuckload different actually. So how does the final product come out? Remember how I said Sven was no longer in the band? Well, the guy they have on vocals now is no Sven. Not by a long shot. The lower bellows are forced and contrived, and the throaty screams are whiney and ineffective. The end result is some of the shittier death metal vocals this year. However, the music itself is decent. The songs have rhythm and a pretty decent sense of melody with cool atmospheric touches here or there. It’s more like a moody Meshuggah mixed with some of the more typical elements of death metal. Unfortunately, the final package is unfulfilling and despite the cool melody and rhythm the experience becomes quite forgettable. It lacks the ferocity and addictive drive of Aborted and it can’t hold a candle to the other technical death metal acts out there like Neuraxis or Necrophagist. I can’t speak for In-Quest’s sound back on their earlier releases with Sven, but after listening to this I can’t blame him for jumping ship. It’s not bad, it’s not great, but one can’t fell but under whelmed from listening to it. Meshuggah and A Life Once Lost fans should have no problem jumping into this Belgium slice of death metal; then again, they have no problem being under whelmed anyway.

Written By: Necro-tron