Description
Infestation – Mass Immolation – Compact Disc
Mass Immolation is one of those underground, cult-status death metal releases that has achieved a sort of mythical aura within certain extreme metal circles. Released in 1999, this album captures the raw, relentless brutality that defined late 90s death metal, especially in the underground where bands were pushing the limits of speed, aggression, and lyrical extremity.
Infestation were a UK-based death metal band, formed in the mid-90s, known for their intense, no-frills approach to brutal death metal. While they never broke into the mainstream metal consciousness, they were highly respected in the tape-trading and fanzine scenes. Their sound sits somewhere between the Florida death metal scene’s relentless blast-beat-driven assault and the crushing, doom-laced heaviness of early British death metal bands like Bolt Thrower and Cancer.
Mass Immolation, their debut full-length, was a monster — a slab of thick, murky production, punishing riffs, and utterly unrelenting vocal ferocity. The album channels themes of apocalyptic destruction, religious corruption, and mass extermination, all wrapped in the bleak, nihilistic worldview that made death metal’s underground so infamous.
Musical Style
The sound of Mass Immolation combines buzzsaw guitars with a thick, sludgy tone with hyper-speed blast beats combined with slower, crushing doom passages. Deep guttural vocals, with lyrics spat out in short, savage bursts. Dissonant tremolo riffs that create an atmosphere of chaos and horror.
Released at a time when death metal was splitting into multiple factions—with some bands going more technical (like Cryptopsy), others more groove-based (like Six Feet Under), and others embracing melody (like In Flames)—Infestation stayed firmly in the trenches of unrelenting, traditional brutality.
Mass Immolation became a cult artifact, especially for UK death metal completists and collectors of 90s extreme metal obscurities. Copies of the original release are rare and highly sought after, with some collectors considering it a hidden gem of British death metal.
Infestation may not have achieved the fame of Carcass or Napalm Death, but they represent the true underground spirit—a band uncompromising in sound, vision, and approach, delivering an album meant only for the most dedicated and brutal fans. Their influence lives on in the current wave of old-school death metal revival bands, who cite albums like Mass Immolation as inspirational artifacts from a grittier era.
If you love death metal that’s raw, uncompromising, and soaked in apocalyptic horror, Mass Immolation is essential listening. It’s the sound of a band playing to annihilate everything in its path, leaving only scorched earth and blown eardrums behind.
Pavement Music 2000
Brand new, never played and still in the factory plastic
Song List
Necrospawn
Book Of Lies
Legions Of Death
Desecrate
The Hunt
Evil, Evil
Carrion
Black Pope
Butcher Knife
Curse Of Creation
Infest
Demons Of Darkness
Prophet Of Doom
Self Impaled
