Two weeks in a row of tech death/thrash album reviews? What’s going on? Are we in the midst of an axial tilt?! I was just starting to recover from the sonic barrage that is Nuclear Tomb’s anything but a sophomore slump, Epoch Inhumane, when Florida young bucks, Inscribed, crossed my radar and said, “Hold my beer.” I call them “young bucks” because these kids are younger than me, and by quite a bit at that. Drummer/vocalist Lucas Moore is only 18, bassist Evie Austin is 20, and guitarist Mario Alvarez, the “unc” of the band, provides the shred heroics at the old age of 21. Their youthful energy shines on their debut full length, Upon the Twisted Throne.
Being that this trio hails from Miami, perhaps it’s just in their blood (or rather the climate) that Twisted sounds less out of 2026 and more out of 1991. Despite not even being alive during the heyday of technical death metal, Inscribed embody the sound and spirit of the genre in its infancy, balancing death-thrashing savagery and spellbinding musical showmanship for what might be the 9 most spastic songs of the year. Over the course of Twisted Throne‘s runtime, there is no safe space, no spare moment to breathe whatsoever, each song enveloping the listener with a nightmarish proportion of schizo-fueled chaos.
Now I’m usually the first to scoff at bands whose virtuosity overshadows their songcraft. Any sorry bastard who spends enough time wanking it in his or her room can lay it down like ’84 Yngwie on crack if they wanted to. That being said, the level of musicianship that Inscribed boasts is simply too colossal to ignore, let alone disregard. While the three members are incredibly talented both in their own right and as a unit, to quote that godawful pop song of my youth, when it comes to Inscribed, it’s “all about that bass”. Austin lays what might genuinely be the greatest Roger Patterson impersonation of all time. From the technique to the tone, one could even go as far as to argue the late Atheist bassist has been reincarnated in the form of this wunderkind, who serves as the lead musical voice on this affair.
Of course, I have to hand it to Moore and Alvarez as well, who are no slouches on their respective instruments. Moore can blast away like Pete “Commando” Sandoval, while diversifying his approach with various flashes of prog-infused maneuvers in the vein of Cynic and the aforementioned Atheist. His vocals are more in the ’80s death/thrash rasp vein as opposed to your typical early ’90s gutturals, which really adds a retro flavor to the affair. As for Alvarez, one can easily hear shades of every legendary Floridian riff-master from Trey Azagthoth to Pat Ranieri, without ever saying, “Hey, I heard this riff exact on a Morbid Angel or Hellwitch album!”
Oddly enough, the only thing I feel that could’ve been improved with this album is its production. Its raw, off the chain delivery certainly gives it a demo vibe, which adds to the insanity of the songs themselves. Granted, this isn’t an album you’d want to hear Pro Tooled to death, but I wouldn’t mind hearing the instruments balanced a little bit more either. That observation aside, Twisted Throne is a nutzo tech metal clinic of the highest order, simultaneously stoking the fires of both Miami and hell. For Inscribed, it’s just another day in a truly twisted life.
7 out of 10
Label: Awakening Records
Genre: Technical Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Atheist, Hellwitch, Sadus
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