Album Review - Adfectus (Introtyl)

The Great Metal Debate Podcast

Welcome metalheads to another Great Metal Debate Review. Its Xander again, and today I will be talking about the new album by Introtyl called Adfectus. Those of you not familiar, Introtyl is an all female brutal death metal band from Mexico City, Mexico. Their debut album titled Creation of Insanity came out in 2018. Now, the kick ass metal maidens are back with a sick new record which was released on April 29th. "Abyss" begins with about 5 seconds worth of ominous sounding whispering before dive bombing straight into a headbang inducing chug riff. On guitars we have a lady who seems to have 3 different names according to The Metal-Archives. For the sake of me not butchering her full name, I'll just refer to her as her nickname Sara. Her work on the entirety of this record might be somewhat formulaic for the particular playing style yet it's simple and effective. I'm going to go ahead and get my slight critiques out of the way before giving this album it's well deserved praise. Many metalheads out there often times complain about the bass not being audible enough. Be careful what you wish for because you just might get an overabundance of it. Its not really the fault of bassist Rose Contreras, its more the simple mistake of whoever the studio engineer is for turning the bass up too high. It's somewhat overpowering but at the same time not so much that it washes out the guitars, drums or vocals. The song "Under My Skin" gives us an earworm catchy guitar riff that will get stuck in your head for sure. If you're not slowly nodding your head to the slow grinding guitar riff, then you're probably not even a real metalhead. The next song titled "Fear" picks up a little in speed as the drums are noticeably faster. Annie Ramirez shows off her skills on the entire drum kit. Sure, she can play the double bass kicks and snare very quickly but she isn't exclusive to those like most other brutal death drummers. However, Annie does seem to shy away from her cymbals though. She does use them occasionally but they're not very audible in the sound mixing when they are heard. Other than that, she has more than displayed her percussion capabilities. "Inner War" was the first single that the band put out for this new album but the music video was uploaded over a year ago. Maybe it was originally just a single but then decided to put it on the next full-length. When you first start this song, it feels like you're just immediately thrown into the middle of the song. There is no soft build-up or calm beginning. It's a relentless track front to back! The next song is called "Anger". It begins with a steady drum beat before picking up the pace and making all who listen to it alone mosh with the wind. I haven't even mentioned vocalist Kary Ramos yet. She deserves an award for her vocals that definitely rival those of Mallika from the band Abnormality. Something about the sound mix makes the drums seem louder on the song called "The Flame" and it's very clear from the start. The opening snare drum roll really stands out because of it but it continues throughout the rest of the song. "Redemption" is the next song and the sound mixing seems to return to normal. At the very end of the song you hear someone taking one deep breath followed by breathing normally to conclude the track. But the album has just one more song up it's sleeve and its called "Zombiefied". "Zombiefied" is the finally and its also the one and only track where you can actually hear Kary Ramos pronounce a word clearly. Any guess as to which word that is? Haha. The song isn't repetitious or anything but you can clearly hear her say the word "Zombiefied" a couple times from the middle to the end of the song. For me, the biggest issue with this album was definitely the sound mixing. Had it been tweeked a little more I would rate the album higher. I'm gonna have to give it a 7.5 out of 10. Be sure to support these ladies by purchasing their music on bandcamp.