Label: Violent Creek Records
Date: September 26th, 2025
At long last! This has been the longest period of silence for this Serbian act since the demo days! And when the storm settles down for so long, it can only come back with a blind rage, fiercer than it’s ever been!
Such is the way of Infest, a powerhouse of Serbian thrashing death metal. One thing you can always rely on: they will come with unrelenting violence, blast through whatever defenses your psyche can muster and move onto the next assault before you can even think about calling for aid. In other words, with just over thirty five minutes, “Ambassadors of Aggression” is the longest Infest record to date. That fact, however, doesn’t mean we’re diving into meandering realms of all too contemplative and philosophical, technical or progressive death metal. What’s more, we’re not moving away from the basic postulates of Infest’s sound, established over twenty years ago.
“Ambassadors of Aggression” goes on from where its predecessors left. Along the years Infest has gotten better at developing their songs, rhythmically and melodically, adding a few touches here and there, in order to avoid stark and endless repetitiveness and left music do the talking. Particularly, the guitar riffs, accentuated and further sharpened by the drum patterns. With Vandal’s rabid growling of one blood boiling parole after another, Infest completes the list of any extreme metal soul’s demands. Catchy riffs, headbanging rhythms and choruses you can easily scream to. Anything else you might need?
Likely not! You can go hail the brotherhood of heavy metal in “Are You with Me?”, question the holy dogma in “Man-God” or curse the brutality of life in times of war, dictatorship and human depravity in “Songs of Violence”. Whichever way you go, these songs are ticking time bombs, set to have you explode with wrath long swept under the rug within.
However, I must call attention to two tracks in particular. First because they are written in Serbian language, which is not a commonplace for Infest. Yet, whenever they attempted this, it turned out as an exquisite example of their creation. Same thing goes for the defiantly sordid “Bolje da umrem”, with its chorus being a moto for alcoholic self-destruction. The man behind the lyrics (vocals and guitar), Vandal, has proven his ability to dive into bohemian poetry with two books under his (bullet)belt and it shines through in this song in particular. Honest to the bottom (of a bottle) and ready to spew whatever needs be spewed.
Another Serbian written monolith of a song is the closing “Requiem for the Balkans”. The title (being the only thing written in English on the track) very much says it all. The poetry lays bare the whole issue with this region, its sociological and political maze of stupidity. Musically as well, the song starts acoustically building into a mid-tempo, hard hitting, heavy eye opener, performed in a perfectly emotional manner, far from the debilitating explosions of the previous nine songs.
Looking at a whole, “Ambassadors of Aggression” is still another compact work which asserts Infest on the very pinnacle of Serbian extreme metal, with songs that drive violent headbanging and chaotic moshing. Showing courage to openly exhibit a bit of a different image can only solidify the status.
The album will be presented live on a European tour later this year and I’m happy to strongly suggest you to check them out should the least opportunity arise.
