Demo:listen: Infernal Body

Welcome to Demo:listen, your weekly peek into the future of underground metal. Whether it’s death, black, doom, sludge, grind, thrash, heavy, speed, progressive, stoner, retro, post-, etc. we’re here to bring you the latest demos from the newest bands. On this week’s Demo:listen, we get twisted and badly bent out of shape with Leeds’ Infernal Body.

Infernal Body truly understand the art of the demo. Even besides the fact that this Leeds-based quartet wail at some of the gnarliest noisy punk/metal you’ve heard this side of the 1990s, Infernal Body understand that the masses just can’t handle a mystery. That’s why you’ll find only two of the six tracks from Infernal Body’s demo, Barren Land, available for streaming here, or anywhere else on the internet. Yeah, they’re two of the stronger tracks on the demo—especially “Sores that Weep”—but they’re not necessarily the best. As Infernal Body’s guitarist, Nick, puts it: “[The songs] really are all of equal importance.” You’ve got to hear the whole demo, of course. And the only way to do that is to show some support, get the physical.

Plus, by recording at their rehearsal space, and capturing all of the incidental atmospheric qualities there, Infernal Body nailed a gloomy and wretched demo sound with Barren Land. According to Nick, Infernal Body meets up to practice and write in “an old mill in Armley.”

“Armley is a historical industrial part of town, known for its red brick buildings much like the rest of the city,” Nick explains. “It’s partly known for having been the location of an asbestos disaster. It has a lot of character.” Typically info like that would tickle me, but I’ve heard the Barren Land’s haunting opener. By striking apocalyptic chords, slow drumming, like the sputtering out and eventual steady drip of some leaky hellspigot, and vocals like the thing at the doorstep, Infernal Body introduce themselves to the unexpecting world. What follows the toxically deranged opener is just as unexpected: manically-paced and angular, noisy-ass blackened punk/metal that’ll have you sneering and flipping coppers the bird in no time.

Infernal Body is Nick on guitar, Callum on drums, Campbell on vocals, and Rob on bass. Rob also drew the demo artwork, which reminds me at least of Thergothon’s demo, Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth. And it’s never a bad thing to be reminded of Thergothon—even if Infernal Body sound precisely nothing like Thergothon. Otherwise, Infernal Body play it close to the vest—which we here at Demo:listen can get behind. They’ve played some shows in their local area, and this is already their second run of the demo tapes. Don’t sleep on Infernal Body. 

You heard it here first on Demo:listen. Check this space next and every Friday for promising new metal.