Review: Kapala (India) “Infest Cesspool”

Kapala (India) “Infest Cesspool”
Dunkelheit Produktionen

You know how lots of records of the more extreme black/death persuasion start out with vaguely diabolic or disturbing sounding samples? Mostly, what the band is trying to do is get you accustomed to what lays ahead; ideally complete audial devastation. Sadly, however, these samples tend to come over as slightly corny (in particular shabby, digitally pitch shifted “spooky devil voices” lifted from some 80s shlock horror film), but when they don’t, they’re actually quite effective. Luckily, such is the case with Kapala’s 2017 EP “Infest Cesspool”. Folks, this relatively young Indian trio presents 19 minutes of unabashed filth, violence and classy (!) noise, interspersed with the occasional crushing mid-tempo riff that should have your head smashed against the wall numerous times, and quite ferociously so.

The production on this slab of gore is best described as maximum everything, with an emphasis on higher end, ear searing devastation. Sure, you won’t be able to distinguish all the subtleties of the drummer’s hi-hat playing, but that’s not why you came here anyway. No, you came here with a spiked chain noose around your neck to submit to supremely raw barbarity. And barbarity is what you receive with Kapala. The problem with many releases in this style is that bands (or, as they occasionally call themselves, “hordes”) try to cover up shabby, unmemorable riffs or incompetent musicianship with ultra noisy production. Because, you know, Nyogthaeblisz made it sound cool. Not here. What Kapala understands and what made this genre’s masterpieces so striking was that shitty, noisy production can never mask a lack of quality riffs and songwriting. Kapala rightly uses the more noisy production style to enhance the overall feeling created by the raw, devastating performances and the mighty riffs they effortlessly manage to shake out of their filth stained sleeves. Dear lord, the riffs on here! Not only are they memorable and soaking with violence, they’re integrated into actual songs with structure and diversity (check out “A.K.S.” for a prime example). A brilliant contributing factor here is the drumming (or, you know, the “war battery of holocaustic doom”). “S” manages to not only deliver the typical beats necessitated by the genre, he provides a brilliant complement to the riffs through tasteful accentuation and variation in fills.

All of this would be great and highly impressive on its own, but that’s not enough for Kapala. No, the pride of Kolkata, India decided to add some special icing to this bloody cake in the form the vocals. While some bands are content with merely employing a generic Blasphemy-styled lower growl, V.I. unleashes a truly grotesque performance here that is disgusting, hate-filled and barbaric. It sounds to me like they employed some classy pitch shifting and overdrive effects on the vocals, but I may be wrong. The dude might just be a demon. Now, let me get back to bathing in the “Infest Cesspool”…