"Another Scheme of the Wicked" by Invertia

Up for our consideration today is an album by Invertia, who are described as industrialized black metallers. Typically, when hearing a description like this, I begin to wonder about the band, because that's awfully specific.

The pair in question, Dave Coppola (guitars and vocals) and Tim Winson (drummer and programming), are from New England. This is a first.

Seriously, how many black metal bands can you name from  New England? I'd think that all the lobster and picturesque vistas would keep someone from growing so angry.

It was with a slight bit of trepidation that I approached this album. More often than not, programmed drums and the like tend to lead to albums with blast beats that are so heavy, so fast, and so brutal that the average human being can not hear all of the thuds....

Like many metal albums in this day and age, there is, what I feel to be, an introduction song that will give the listener a good feel as to what's to come.

There are two things that stand out on their opening track:

1. It's over five minutes long, so maybe it's not the intro I thought it was.

2. It's full of samples repeating "Hail Satan" and variants in several different ways.

The Hail part isn't the interesting part, but the sampling part. Very few metal records have that sort of sampling. While listening to it, what came to mind was is this what Ministry would sound like if they were totally metal instead of  totally industrial?

The riffing reminds me of the Tampa Bay Death Metallers. Staccato picking, single note lines, sounding wavy. The drums are interesting and unusual. There is no super mega blast beats that I was worried about, but subtle thumping.

The vocals are appropriately gritty and intelligible. The guitars are lacking in the face melting solos, but the samples and unique squeals really add enough that I was finding myself missing out on the leads.

Definitely worth picking up.

Release: 4/8/15
Genre: Metal, Industrial metal
Run time:
Label: Ohm Resistance Records
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Tracklist:
1. The Sidewinding
2. Cross-Eyed Christ
3. Void of Community
4. Hourglass Without Sand
5. They're Everywhere
6. The Sidewinding (Justin K. Broadrick Remix)
7. Cross-Eyed Christ (End.user Remix)
8. Void of Community (TranZi3nt Remix)
9. Hourglass Without Sand (Submerged Remix)
10. They're Everywhere (R3TRD Remix)