The local Rhode Island based death metal band Eminent has released their first EP entitled "Infernal Void". Throughout this six track EP you can definitely hear and feel the natural chemistry between members Dan Bianco, Andrew L, JR. G., and Charlie H. Inspired by other bands such as Meshuggah, Lorna Shore, Harms Way, and The Acacia Strain, Eminent focuses on providing heavy breakdowns, blast beats out the wazoo, and a great vocal range dynamic. Mixed and mastered by member Andrew L, this EP was released on October 26th of 2018 and can be found on Apple Music, Spotify, and Band Camp.
The EP begins with the first track "Cult (Intro)" which was one of my favorite songs on the album. This was due to "Cult" immediately grabbing the listener's attention by the heavy guitar that lead into dirty vocals. I also thought that this track was an awesome way to introduce the listener to Eminent's unique sound by the way the instruments built up and bass dropped at around 1:20. This song eventually leads into track two "Born Into Suffering" which is one of the most well-known off the album.
"Born Into Suffering" begins with the vocalist screaming the lyrics "Born into suffering" and afterwards the rest of the group comes in at full force. The different vocal ranges of this song are amazing to listen to, and the longer more complex pieces to this track reminded me of songs by Meshuggah or the Contortionist. The spacey vibes in this song allow the listener to be immersed in the landscape that Eminent creates. My favorite part about this song was the pairing of the vocal tempo with the strumming of the guitar. This effect sounded awesome and stood out to the listener among the other songs on the EP.
Track three "Nemesis" starts with complex guitar work and leads into more spacey vibes. Although this wasn't one of my favorite songs, I definitely appreciate the effective use of djent and where the breakdowns were placed. This song follows a similar structure to track 5 "Instiller of Fetid Decay".
"Knee Deep" follows "Nemesis" and is another one of the more popular songs off of this EP. "Knee Deep" uses a great combination of clean and hard vocals throughout its 5:39 minute playtime, I only wish that the clean vocals would have been set at a higher volume, or separated from the rest of the instruments and vocal work. There are some portions in this song where the instruments and vocals blend too well, and it becomes hard for the listener to differentiate between who is doing what.
The final track "Day of the Wolf" closes out the EP on a high on a high note, and brings together all of the emotions and thoughts that this EP conveys. I enjoyed how the band uses different space-like sounds to convey being in an alternate dimension, and also how this track led back into "Cult" thus making this EP easy to keep on repeat.
I was very impressed by Eminent's first EP and the amount of time/work that went into creating this. Although there were a few segments of this EP where the instruments blended too well with each other, I don't feel like it detracted the overall feeling to this album. After all, the segments could easily be tweaked by revisiting them with a more professional producer or recorder. For Eminent's first EP this received a strong 6 out of 10. Even though I would not buy this EP on vinyl, I urge everyone to see the band live because they put on a hell of a good show.
