Talk about being doomsday prophets. APHND released last album ‘When The World Becomes Undone’ in 2019 and shortly after, that’s exactly what happened. If you thought they were not the happiest band in the world before this, it’s hardly the sort of thing that was going to make them the most jovial, being thrown into the midst of a pandemic, stopping them playing live and weathering this storm, which has had everyone licking their own personal wounds. Yes, the result has been some pretty glum albums and as one would anticipate ‘Infernum In Terra’ is another from the same mould; luckily Sal Abruscato and his unmerry men have that wry sense of humour to go with it and although there is no shortage of doom and gloom here we can at least confront it with a smile on our faces.

I had not realised that there had been a couple of line-up changes since the last opus and now in are recent bassist and drummer Oddie McLaughlin and Chris Hamilton, ex Type O, Seventh Void beater John Kelly being a noted departure. Still, it’s no great change to the sound, the bass is still deep and booming and hitting the Sabbathian low notes, there’s still those sliding down the scales guitar motifs that take us right back to when we first heard the very early faeces of a certain band and there are still melodies that will have Beatles fans crying.

Essentially what we have here is a 54-minute album, which despite being slow, deep and hard seems over in a flash, containing an intro, outro, mid-point short distraction and 8 more fully fledged numbers. Snaking melody, a little like a slow sinuous Ministry slithers out as the first of these ‘Believe in Something (You Are Lost)’ takes us to the party where pin the tail on the gee-gee is likely to result in it kicking back and breaking your neck. Vocals are full of soul and the melody is natural, gradually getting in the head and spreading lyrical gloom like a bunch of emos at said party playing pass the parcel and unwrapping a package of razor-blades. I have noted that this album is prone to have some spiralling guitar solos in it and these are unleashed at times in a flamboyant fashion distracting a little from the misery. Listen to the first few seconds of ‘Cast Out From The Sky’ and you will be hurtled back in time to some of the nuances mentioned earlier. Casting a musical shadow that cannot be denied and it’s all quite gorgeous, all one needs is a wreath as the songs to sing at your funeral are all here, fitting alongside ‘Hello Darkness My Old Friend’ as Simon And Garfunkel accompany that coffin beyond the final curtain. At times it is jubilant, the cutting ‘Shards Of Glass’ happy in its misery with soaring chorus and paradoxical upbeat flourishes.

It’s after that odd funereal ‘It Is Done’ interlude I find some of my favourite tunes on the album. Perhaps ‘Two Headed Snake (Propofol Dreams)’ is a slightly self-indulgent psychedelic pill to swallow but after it the nursery lullaby keyboard sounds of ‘Slave And Master’ are guaranteed to both blissfully soothe and melt the soul. This is a ballad straight from the heart. ‘Devil’s Deed’ has a leaden groove that would not be out of place on a Monster Magnet album and melody that for some strange reason reminds a bit of Rob Zombie and is a fine tune. As for ‘Reflections Of The Dead’ what a song to sing along to, once this gets its claws in you just won’t be able to resist doing that. An addictively haunting lament if I ever heard one.

As Sal himself has stated, he writes “dark music to sooth a dark soul’ and that’s exactly what we get here. Long may he continue to cheer us up doing so.

(8/10 Pete Woods)

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