- In 2015, Pact Infernal released the first of two EPs inspired by Dante's descent through the nine circles of hell, as chronicled in the 14th century poem Divine Comedy. The nine tracks on the The Descent 12-inches were ominous takes on drone, techno and industrial. Divine Comedy described the center of hell as a frozen depth, where Satan was trapped waist-deep in ice. At the end of Inferno, Dante escaped the underworld; on Pact Infernal's debut album, the duo instead travel further into the frozen depths, summoning evil at every turn across 13 tracks.
Infernality is a cinematic expedition through foreboding registers. While the tempos across the album vary greatly (from the static air of "Transmutation" to the sprinting "Talismans"), the doomsday ambient, pummeling industrial and tribal drums maintain a consistent mood. Swelling drones and rattling metal sounds seem as though they're trying to escape the album's blackened surface.
For all of the doom on Infernality, human touches emerge on most tracks. "Philosophy" is full of unquantised hand drumming. On "Retribution," distant drums and a faint vocal cry are heard. "Principles"'s percussion seems to step delicately around an ominous rumble.
Infernality's relentlessly dark music can get repetitive. "Retribution" recycles the clanking industrial atmosphere of "Meditations." "Rites Of Passage" is much the same as the preceding track, "Summoning," both set to a 4/4 march atop gristly drones. Infernality, woven with inventive interplays of drone and heavy percussion, can evoke widescreen landscapes. But the album ends up sounding surprisingly narrow. The duo focus on darkness so insistently that they sometimes seem lost in it.
Tracklist01. Purification
02. Initiation
03. Philosophy
04. Meditations
05. Principles
06. Death & Rebirth
07. Infernality
08. Talismans
09. Symbology
10. Transmutation
11. Retribution
12. Summoning
13. Rites Of Passage