A familiar alien synod creating outlandish pastiche from bodies unwillingly brought to life by cock-eyed observation Long Island, New York-borne brutal progressive death metal quartet Afterbirth come well-represented by an eclectic collage of ripped, scribbled and biomechanical parts as an entity which exists entirely within its own afterlife. An early-term abortion revived through chance of kismet two decades after death now ten years revived, these folks are yet wandering between several realms of irreverent, avant-garde actions seeking more immediate and caught-in-a-moshable layers of abstraction. Album number three acts as a vore of possibilities, an eater of many worlds which is yet a tactful digestive tube… putting valuable nutrients to good use, coughing up unexpected reactivity for display, and ejecting that which has served its purpose through a colorful jet-stream in their wake. ‘In But Not Of‘ chooses carefully what passes through its tightly wound runtime yet doesn’t force the choice between realistic, shoulder-slung render and an indirect feed of alienation, crafting what is naturally surreal per its contributors within an increasingly organic space. The yield is profound yet far from ungainly in scope, detailed yet sleekly threaded through its kaleidoscopic tunnel vision for future-sighted metamodernist post-death metal.

Afterbirth formed circa 1993 between teenaged folks making the most extreme death metal they could manage after jamming on riff ideas together for a short while. Their run wasn’t long or all that profound, disbanding after just two years, but they managed to cut one rehearsal tape and a now infamous pro-recorded demo tape ‘Psychopathic Embryotomy‘ (1994) which many attribute as an early example of slamming brutal death metal. At the time groups like Pyrexia, Suffocation and Internal Bleeding might’ve been a few steps/years ahead but still offer a reasonable comparison in hindsight and if you’re all about crews like Dripping those tapes should catch your ear. They’d reformed nearly two decades later after Pathos Productions requested to reissue an archive of their work and things naturally fell into place for a CD-r demo (later reissued as ‘Maggots in Her Smile‘, 2014) and this’d acted as the link between past and their present style now developed across the span of ten years and three LPs, largely expanded upon with the more “straightforward” progressive brutal death metal push-and-pull of their first for Unique Leader (‘The Time Traveler’s Dilemma‘, 2017) which’d drawn loose comparisons to Lykathea Aflame, Wormed and Defeated Sanity. None of their work had really hit me at that point and it probably should’ve at the time, keeping in mind a shit-ton of sci-fi tech death records had released in the 2010’s and it’d looked like just another at face value.

I’m more-or-less restating most of what I’d written in preamble to the high praise I’d had for Afterbirth‘s second full-length (‘Four Dimensional Flesh‘, 2020) nearby the start of the pandemic year(s). That record did something else for me entirely as a listener presenting a weirding contrast between the brutal horror of the unknown and a beauteous admiration of the vastness available to their space-faring ways and there was equal curiosity for both the extreme brutal death metal niche and the progressive death metal side of things making for a decidedly modern vision that’d been slickly rendered, memorable for its atmospheric/imaginative experiential quality, and potent in its condensed impact. It earned an easy spot as #5 on my Top 100 Albums of 2020 list and continues to be one of my favorite nowadays death metal records in recent memory. So, there wasn’t such a high chance that ‘In But Not Of‘ would hit harder than the last record per my own taste but I’d done my best to limit any direct or inequitable comparisons upon first impressions. I suppose the first observation I’d made at the outset was the strong sense that they weren’t intent on making the same album twice, that this one was going to be more adventurous while still clinging to the sense of identity built thus far.

Standards are set high for this third full length album (and first for Willowtip Records) and I’d venture to say that ‘In But Not Of‘ does something equally avant-garde but certainly different enough this time around. In the process of exploring the quartet’s varietal inspirations, going down all necessary roads from classic post-hardcore, post-punk and post-industrial all the way up to deathgrind and neo-progressive rock. The result should be befuddling at a glance but a most complete vision of what Afterbirth have long been all about once the bigger picture has been parsed; As the title suggests we’re getting something that is capable and willing to be the outlier, disconnected and not a part of the zeitgeist and I think these folks live up to that in a very different way on this recording by avoiding any sense of standardized sub-genre lineage flowing through their channel. Fluidity of motion, quick screen-wipes upon scenery, and emergent thoughts within fairly short pieces keep the ear incapable of prediction to start. Will it give you ADHD and leave your goofy ass cross-eyed? Nah, but it definitely took a few runs through to latch onto a the whole deal.

“Devil’s With Dead Eyes” has this late 80’s crossover ride to its rub in the first half, obviously pushing harder than Prong‘s earliest tapes but adding that kinda squirrely-fingered hardcore/metalpunk edge already brought by the gang-shouted (per folks from Thaetas and Nightmarer) and grinding float n’ shove of opener “Tightening the Screws“. Thrash gallops, wailing leads, bruiser beats and spaced prog-death chugs all scrambling through as if effortless and yet somehow the actual idea/riff count is already doubled per minute when looking back to the scrambled-through action of of ‘Four Dimensional Flesh‘. Before I’d had a second to start asking “What the fuck?” I think I’d already been hit with five or so riffs in the space of two minutes and by the time the ~2:30 minute mark hits we’re grace by our first pocket of bliss, not quite ready to go to the hilt with it but enough to create a strong point of contrast to round out the shape of the lightning bolt of a piece; First impressions reveal a well-anchored low end with fairly clean-toned guitar presence which sets the rhythm sounds lower than center, lets the brighter edge of the bass guitar linger upwards in space, and the drums are live in studio loud with more of a “real” presence rather than making canned soup of it. The vocals help give a grand sense of space but we’ll get to ’em in a bit.

“Vomit of Humanity” is the last of the 2014 demo CD-r pieces to be made official they haven’t mangled its beaten down gargle-through, holding to its meter tightly down to the second for this version which is great to hear with vocalist Will Smith‘s (Reeking Aura, ex-Artificial Brain) unique vocal style applied. One of the best aspects of this record is almost an intangible notion to put forth but it feels like the fellow’s vocals are better considered in space whether they’re engulfing a dissonant rise (“Vivisected Psychopomp”) at full blast or providing an improvised bit ‘o weird (start of “Devils With Dead Eyes”) and generally being more the life of the party here; “Autoerotic Amputation” must’ve been intentionally set next up in the running order since it not only expands upon the spectacle of the previous piece but packs the same level of impact within just about half the amount of time. These eight minutes that build towards the center-point of the album offer a chance for the riffs and the brutal vibrancy of Afterbirth to shine but also Smith‘s vocals to reach their gutsiest, exaggerated wretch and deeper characterize Side A as the twisted bellows of the machine, where the brutal and grinding innards begin to stretch under the uproar as their ideas begin work beyond typified death metal standards.

For all of the thrills offered within those first five pieces “Hovering Human Head Drones” was where I’d finally settled into the groove of the full listen, finding the strong contrast of mood I’d wanted beyond harder shorter pieces had offered at that point. It makes sense as the closure for Side A finishing the thought while introducing a differently motorized, post-industrial revolving beat and gravel scuffing guttural vocals to keep it all rolling out surreal. To jump right into the title track (“In But Not Of”) from there makes great sense as the illustrative piece intensifies over the course of its mostly instrumental ride, flitting through variously calmed-over and brutal movements until a few flurries of growls and chugs signal the path out of its vortex. Not only is this the longest piece on the album but it nearly reaches a cumulative point of affect, the one to showcase the two extremes presented overall and how they’d connect eh, if they had to and this is fitting of title track at the very least. That isn’t the whole of it but the short of it… I could go on about the stoney alt-metal groove that kicks off at one point and the psychedelic swerve-in at the start but I guess noting these moments of confusional arousal whenever I’d had the record playing could become tedious as we take a closer scrub through the lot of Side B.

Up until that point it’d maybe felt we’d had glimpses of a leap beyond the small exaggerations and points of prog-death respite found on ‘Four Dimensional Flesh‘ but by the time we’re knee-deep in the bulk of “Angels Feast on Flies” a groove which I would describe as post-hardcore/alt rock inspired (see: ~2:32 minutes in) starts to prick my ear a bit but in this case hectic vocal layers, some black metallic guitar work and rising prog-metal guitar swells quickly change the subject. Keyboards provided by producer/engineer Colin Marston suit the atmosphere in an unsettling way as the song plays itself out, filling an already full space with even more layers. Now I’m not saying that this is a post-hardcore inspired brutal prog-death record but there is enough flourish and new ground broken on Side B that I couldn’t help but begin musing over how to contain and describe the variety of inflection they’ve embraced herein. You’ll get what I mean when hitting “Time Enough Tomorrow” which is at the very least several steps beyond the simpler interstitial vignettes found on ‘The Time Traveler’s Dilemma‘. The wheel keeps turning and the last few pieces complete the thought. Overall I think I spent roughly two months with some beyond intensive listening sessions and I’ve come out of the ‘In But Not Of‘ pit still marveling over the quick-witted but never overtly precious work that it sports.

Cutting out of the moment-to-moment action, taking stock of the detailed flow and ease of movement (by way of an unsteadied spirit) the full listen of ‘In But Not Of‘ reads less like a mélange of ideas and more a lifetime of aspirations pulled from guitar metal/rock aspirations and pieced into a surreal, personalized form. In the past their work was never exactly patchwork but the juxtaposition of moods and flavors was either more stark or far more brief in its integrations whereas it feels like Afterbirth have glommed into one hydra for this event. This is helped along by the vital presence of the record which is at once imposing and completely unreal in its performances but set in an at least believable amount of space so that it might become tangible when close attention is paid to some of the acoustic aspects of the recording. The room is bloodied and it is a tight fit but what splatter they’ve created quickly becomes a mercurial mist, an esoteric and malleable atmosphere which manages another satisfyingly abstract experience from these folks. Likewise ~35 minutes is the prime length of a spin from such a detail rich release and I think they’ve nailed it once again in this regard, curating plenty enough material and unique artwork to carry the sensation through. If you were as hooked into their last two releases as I was I am positive your conclusions will be similar. Very high recommendation.

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