With an attack somewhere between classic Gorguts and the more capable of the deathcore hordes, New Jersey crew Replicant have been toiling away for ten years and three albums now, making the sort of sharp-edged death metal that can't help but excite the brain and damage the neck. Something of a mini-supergroup thanks to members in the likes of past site favourites Windfaerer and Tombs, the band lean heavily towards dissonant death metal without quite falling in, meaning they have something of the avant-garde to their riffs and blasts. With, of course, dual vocalists with the sort of anguished howls and grunts that only add to the Gorguts effect, quite a prestigious comparison to make and not one made lightly...

Yet from six-minute opener Acid Mirror alone there's much to be impressed by, and that's before the electronica-enhanced beatdown that closes the track. Opening with vicious churning riffs that soon launch into a wall of relentless noise, the track feels like deathcore and slam at moments, calculated brutality designed to turn the moshpit into a slaughterhouse. As it continues, however, with guitar riffs having something of a tech-death or even Voivod vibe at points, the strangeness of the piece takes the helm, shifting tempos and some downright Cryptopsy-esque soloing notable as well as a moment of near-ambient for atmosphere. It's hard to focus too much on, at least on initial listens, thanks to how seamlessly the band connect moment to moment and even track to track, false endings and sudden shifts keeping your attention peeled, and it's never boring or repetitious, even for someone like your reviewer who isn't always the biggest hardcore fan...!

These influences are so well-incorporated that few could find complaints. Slower moments on Shrine to the Incomprehensible work well with some of the more hardcore-feeling chugs but they never stick around long enough to grow tiresome. A clear but unplastic production job (by Cognitive's Armindo Viana) helps too, particularly with the usually audible bass, and elevates moments like the beastlike snarling on Orgasm of Bereavement. The jazzy Atheist-esque moments on Reciprocal Abandonment is another good example, and of course the way that the band play with the structure there is fascinating, breaking things down to individual instruments and building back up with plenty a technical flourish.

And really it's hard to criticise any individual aspect of Infinite Mortality, even interlude SCN9A having a horror movie ominousness that introduces the following proggy Pain Enduring particularly well. Extra playfulness with the initial riffing soon leads to a diverse and enjoyable battering with plenty of lead guitar prettiness, and the blunt grooviness of the following Nekrotunnel is a delightful contrast. It helps that despite the deathcore DNA in their blood the band are never content to follow a too lunkheaded course, keeping their music in intelligent realms even as it moves the listener physically - the most deathgrind-y moment here in the sub-three minute Dwelling on the Threshold extends its breakdowns with deliberately weird, almost clean-sung interludes, for example. And nine-minute finale Planet of Skin (what a great song title and what a mental image!) throws in more of the strange electronics for full alien repulsiveness even as the underlying death metal snakes through and takes over to bring things to a suitably epic close. The sort of album that renews your reviewer's enthusiasm for underground metal single-handedly, Replicant are well worth your time.