Genre: Death metal
Origin: Brazil
Released: 2008
Website: Infested Blood
Label: Gormageddon Productions
Uploaded: 18.09.09

This is the first release from Gormageddon Productions, a sublabel of famed Stygian Crypt, but I don’t really know why they chose this to be their first release. As far as I know it’s also the only release of the sublabel so far, so maybe sales didn’t turn out as well as they had hoped, and they abandoned ship; I don’t know (but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me). Why is that, you might ask. Well it’s quite simple really; this suck. I do love brutal death metal, and when given the opportunity to choose a record to listen to just for my own pure enjoyment (instead of most time when I listen to promos waiting to get reviewed) I almost always go for brutal death metal. It doesn’t have to be unique, it just have to be of a certain quality. But Tribute to apocalypse doesn’t really meet any of my requirements, despite the somewhat cool-looking cover art.
This is quite uninteresting. The drumming could definitely use some re-takes to sound tighter, as is now it’s a bit too sloppy at times. The guitar lacks any really heaviness, which is mostly to blame the production for. Lack of wicked riffing can easily be hidden away with a chunky sound, making the heaviness its powerful aspect instead of inventiveness. Unfortunately that’s not the case here, and the sound is weak and demo-like. However they don’t lack interesting riffing, surprisingly enough. It would be easy to just brush it off as another low-budget attempt to play brutal death metal, but Infested Blood has some catchy riffing to be heard. But as I said the sound quality suck and you don’t have the energy to concentrate enough to decipher its power in riffage. The sound issue also ruins the vocals, which sound like a tortured walrus trapped in a storage room. I guess that goes for all instruments as it really sounds weak and low-fi. You don’t have to have a great budget to get a decent recording, but with this it sounds as they just used whatever they could find in the rehearsalroom. It would be an ok thing if they were just checking out what their material sounded like, but not for a genuine fullength release.
But trying to look past the horrific production I think I can hear some quality just waiting to be unleashed. The material sounds somewhat similar to that of Pustulated and other such acts, which means fairly technical, ultra-blasting, brutal death metal. And I think Infested Blood could create something good, but this is too crude both in execution and sound to be considered anything else than decent suckiness. It doesn’t get any better for the two videos included either, as it’s pretty much just overdubbed low-quality live footage. And I can’t take the vocalist serious throughout the Impaler deeds video. He looks retarded, plain and simple, like someone making a mockery of brutal death metal.

Tracklist:
01. Diabolical reincarnation
02. Walking through infernal catacombs
03. Forgotten beliefs
04. The law
05. Rotting years
06. Impaler deeds
07. Possessed by the blood
08. Those who defy