Origin - Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas (Relapse)

Like night & day, my friends, like night & day. That’s the easiest way to summarize the contrast between Kansas’ Origin’s self-titled debut on Relapse records, and this, their sophomore effort. The improvement is vast and multifarious, almost to the point where it sounds like a completely different band, even though all the stylistic flags from the first album are still very much present on this one.

Origin’s debut was an atrociously boring, repetitive and flat-as-a-washboard piece of garbage that was essentially nothing more than drummer John Longstreth playing circles around his bandmates, who wrote and performed the songs with what seemed like no enthusiasm at all. Every song sounded just like the ones before and after it, right through the whole 29 minutes. I had a promo of this album and couldn’t stand listening to it more than once, and ended up neglecting my duty to review it, so I guess you can count that as my review for it [wink-wink, nudge-nudge].

On to more pressing matters, Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas is, as I’ve established already, a mammoth improvement. The whole album is played at, if you’ll think back to that spoof-movie classic Spaceballs, ludicrous speed. If you thought the likes of Vader, early Morbid Angel and Rebaelliun had set the bar for speed in death metal, then this new Origin pole-vaults way, way, waaaaaaaaay over said bar. Think of it this way, I, I, I is about 28½ minutes long; if it was performed at the same pace as the self-titled album [which was still fairly fast in its own right, mind you], it would be upwards of 45 minutes in length. And I’m not just talking about the drumming here, every aspect of the band’s sound has been thrown into overdrive, including the angular, jackhammering guitar riffs [picture Immolation's Bob Vigna co-writing songs with Luciferion's Michael Nicklasson] and the vocal delivery [which is now a quick, vicious, punctuated, 3-pronged attack]. And 'lo & behold, John Longstreth, who was already one of the most ridiculously talented drummers in metal has merely increased his speed and creativity twofold on this album, turning in a performance that humbles anything and everything I've been subjected to in the extreme metal field to date... this drumming's nuttier than my turds after a tour of the Planters factory.

Speed isn’t everything, of course, and by all indications Origin know that quite well, given the gargantuan step up in raw songwriting that they exhibit on this album. Whilst the debut was mind-numbingly uninvolved and droning, Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas is surprisingly compelling and hooky, with a majority of the songs [the exception being the re-recording of "Mental Torment"] having some form of catchy segment to distinguish them from one-another. The first album, of course, was almost entirely devoid of any such personality. Case-in-point, on this album I can actually pick out a clear favorite song, that being "Portal", which actually showcases some Stockholm death metal influence in its brief but striking guitar leads.

As a whole, this is quite a fluid and catchy album, complementing its standing as perhaps the fastest technical death metal album ever. And it’s also somewhat atmospheric, in its own perverse way, with the music being destructive to the degree that it effectively reflects the chaos, apocalypse & mass-destruction themed lyrics. Easily the biggest pleasant surprise of 2002.

By: Roman Temin