Review by Carl on January 9, 2024.

Roughly around the time this album was released, I had the pleasure to see this lot in action in a sold-out shoebox venue, together with Isacaarum and Exhumed. It was in the middle of a scorching hot summer, and the place was packed, so you literally couldn't move your ass in this sweltering sock drawer with a stage in it. It was sweaty, it was uncomfortable, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever attended. Haaaa, memories...

After a weird intro that combines electronic droning sounds, drum 'n' bass and Front 242-like EBM (that lasts just that bit too long), the band launches into their brand of grinding death metal, combining old school grindcore with fierce US style death metal, as well as a touch of goregrind groove. The bulk of the material moves forth at high velocity, with relentless blasting and skank beats being the driving force behind the death/grind guitar riffing that brings to mind bands such as early Deicide, "Harmony Corruption" era Napalm Death, Impetigo, Dead Infection and Terrorizer. The gruff low vocals trade off with piercing high-pitched screams in the best grindcore tradition, and the whole is delivered with a high level of energy and aggression behind it. In a track like "Biomechanized Earthflutes", an early Cannibal Corpse touch creeps into the riffing, there's a dose of Extreme Noise Terror style crust injected into the punky "D.C. Sucks!!!", while touches of sick goregrind groove give tracks such as "Cryogenics" and "Binary Reflections" a relentless drive forward. On this album, Ingrowing delivers a solid mixture of speedy death metal and grindcore rage, packaged in simple and compact songs that primarily aim for impact.

Which makes it too bad that the music gets undercut by the typical early 00's production job. The triggered kicks sound pretty horrible, but the worse part is that the guitars get to play second fiddle to the vocals and percussion somewhat, thus draining the music of a part of its power and impact. Viewed in its totality, it's certainly not a disastrous soundmix because it does get the point across well enough, but the feeling that there was more in the can remains lingering. Ingrowing were/are an awesome live act, and unfortunately that does get nipped in the bud here.

This is certainly no bad effort, and the band does deliver an energetic dose of varied and aggressive grinding death metal, but as is the case with more bands in the genre from around this time, the effort gets kinda choked by a pretty iffy production. Good thing the material on offer is of such a quality that it still manages to convince, despite the questionable soundmix.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10