INFINITUM OBSCURE, Ipsus Universum (2009, Blood Harvest)

The skull:
Originally released as half of a split with Ancient Gods on Utterly Somber Creations in 2003, these Infinitum Obscure tracks were later reissued as a standalone 10″, and that’s when they were graced with this excellent skull cover. That swirly shit in the background is maybe a callback to the original art, which was just a lame purple vortex, but obviously, the real attraction here is the skull egg issuing a bat-winged demon baby made of fire. I can’t even believe how awesome that description sounds, and I’m sure I can’t add to the greatness of this image. Let’s just bask for a moment in its magnificence. You know, before that demon baby grows up and eats us alive or impregnates our skulls or whatever. It’s best not to think where this is all headed, really.

The music:
Ipsus Universum is a pretty even mix of death and black metal, reminding me of mid-period Old Man’s Child (In Defiance of Existence and Vermin), when they mostly dropped the keyboards and got back to their death metal roots. This is riffy and dense music, with a lot of musical twists and some fairly impressive playing. Infinitum Obscure are definitely fans of Morbid Angel, too, but that sound unsurprisingly meshes well with 6/8 black metal. All in all, this is an intense listen, and a very well-crafted release. I’m not often in the mood for this sort of thing, but I might have to track this down for those times when I am. The production is a little murkier than I like, and the vocals are hit or miss, but the music is great and the vibe is pretty seriously evil. Usually the abuse of Latin is a clear-cut signal of awfulness in metal, but somehow Infinitum Obscure have bucked the trend.
— Friar Johnsen