I have a soft spot for Apartment 213, and probably would have if all they’d ever released was the sample at the beginning of ‘Headache’. This reissue whumps their LP for Retribute Records on vinyl, serving as a neat artefact for materialistic hoarders like me as well as a nice reminder as to just what a tasty slab of bitterness this is. Like Despise You, Apartment 213 expertly navigated the fine line between powerviolent traditionalism and canny metal influences. This means that while you can pin down Infest inferences the whole album is redolent of that ultra-heavy, Cleveland-specific sickness that so many Integ-wannabes fail so miserably to conjure. While speed is in evidence, much revolves around a mid-to-slow-paced lurch and punishing density, the belligerent roars spiked through with harmonic squeals that’d do Morbid Angel proud. Elsewhere, noise interludes crackle through the heaviness and the band’s grubby serial killer obsessions add to the overriding air of wrongness. It’s a surly, ugly, riff-heavy thing that’s prone to unprovoked acts of violence and slogs along with only its own satisfaction in mind. Frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
