Review: In Conquered – The Wide Path to the Lake of Fire
In Conquered should be a fairly established name by now. A solo project of multi-instrumentalist Jordan Varela, In Conquered’s debut album Nor Rivalled, Nor Equalled took the Christian metal world for a wild ride with Varela pushing the limits of what an extreme metal drummer can pull off (I still say he’s the Christian metal scene’s Flo Mounier [for those of you who don’t know who that is, he’s the drummer for Canadian death metal/extreme metal act Cryptopsy]). Nor Rivalled, Nor Equalled took the tremolo-riffing and thin guitar tone normally associated with black metal, but injected a hyper-percussive sense of tech-death into the mix, all augmented by Varela’s deep gurgle-style vocal, and even though the album was almost exhausting in its all-cylinders-firing-at-once approach, it was a breath of fresh air in the Christian death metal scene. So, with that in mind, how does In Conquered’s second album, The Wide Path to the Lake of Fire, stack up?
Sophomore albums are always a tricky bit of business. There’s always the trap one can fall in of simply releasing a rehash of more of the same sounds of the first album on one hand, but also the opposite trap of doing something different enough that a band risks alienating its original fanbase. In my view, In Conquered largely sticks to the formula of the first record, but adds just enough of a twist to their sound that it doesn’t sound simply like a redo of the first one. For the record, it’s the album that got me into In Conquered in the first place.
If you were privy to the wild cacophony of controlled chaos that was this band’s first record, you’ll know what to expect here. Uber-manic and ever-shifting drum patterns, rapid-fire double bass kicks, and Varela’s Dying Fetus-like growls are all present as before; what’s different is the tone and approach of the riffs. Where Nor Rivalled, Nor Equalled’s riffs were black metal in style but light in tone (think Extol’s approach on Burial), The Wide Path to the Lake of Fire focuses in on a slightly heavier approach that is by turns less trebly and spindly, and more traditional. For some who may have found In Conquered’s first record overwhelming, this could be a positive, as it gives something for the listener to grab hold of amidst the maelstrom. For others who were charmed by the technical violence of the debut album, they could be left underwhelmed to a small degree. What hasn’t changed or let up in any way, however, is Varela’s psychotically intense drumming. This man is an absolute machine on the drums, and it shows on every song. To my mind, he’s one of the best drummers in metal, and his intense approach to his musical training is obvious on every level. In short, musically, this album checks all the right boxes for the style.
Lyrically, this is where I find the album somewhat lacking. Each In Conquered album seems to be a concept one, with the first concerning the process of conversion and the new Christian life, and the third concerning the Passion of our Lord. I’m sure you can guess what this album is about. Hellfire, demons, eternal damnation, the state of the damned, and all the rest are used as lyrical warnings against heading spiritually south, as it were. But the singular focus on these things is so repetitive that they begin to lose the force they were probably meant to have. Indeed, several songs repeatedly mention weeping and gnashing of teeth to the point where it becomes predictable. I’m not trying to be extra hard on In Conquered here; it’s just that…I get it. Hell is awful, you don’t want to be in that state. But the focus just becomes too monotonous, and unlike In Conquered’s other albums, deviates from a compelling narrative into a simple hammering home that hell is hot, full of demons, and there’s a ton of teeth-gnashing.
My criticism of that aside, The Wide Path to the Lake of Fire is still a good album, especially if you’re craving some old-school blackened death metal brutality. It expands the In Conquered sound with an occasional synth here and there for atmospheric purposes, and injects a little extra brutality into the mix with its riff-approach. Though I would still recommend In Conquered’s first record, Nor Rivalled, Nor Equalled, this is the album that got me into the band, and that says something.
Check it out HERE.
For Fans Of: Dying Fetus, Decrepit Birth, Immolation, Nile, Separatist
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