ORIGIN
Inhuman
By: Wade Gosselin
If you were to find that ORIGIN's new full-length, Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas, sounds like the work of a completely different band when compared to their self-titled Relapse debut, you'd be right... sort of. Guitarists Paul Ryan and Jeremy Turner remain at the epicenter of the Kansas quintet's deadly sound, as does drummer John Longstreth. However, consider that Ryan and Turner have taken gargantuan steps at honing their six-string warfare and with III we have our first true showcase of Longstreth's nature behind the ORIGIN kit (he came into the recording of the debut with drums mostly pre-arranged). The former Angel Corpse sticksman proves to be inhuman indeed, his malevolent one-man stampede sparing not a soul. This progression alone would be deserving of horns-high hails, but compound it with the performances of vocalist James Lee and new bassist Mikey Florez, and it becomes downright overwhelming. Lee adds a decidedly caustic pen 'n' throat to the invasive, end-of-it-all assault that is ORIGIN. Does this guy live on a diet of motor-oil and crabgrass or what? Whatever the reason, Lee's vocals are deeeskusting and completely appropriate when paired with the music of III. Gone is the "vocals-mirror-percussion-n-riffs" approach of the debut, allowing Lee to be his own monstrosity. They do hate us, don't they? All told, listening to Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas is like speeding without a windshield through a tornado (Kansas... get it?) just as it swallows a hardware store and maybe it's because I used to eat paint chips while sitting too close to the TV as a kid, but I crave such abuse. A tour with labelmates Nile as well as Arch Enemy and Hate Eternal will hunt you down this summer. Jeremy Turner recently touched base with RESOUND on all things ORIGIN.
How do you feel James has lived up to expectations on Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas? His lyrical approach seems to fit nicely into the ORIGIN frame of mind.
The expectations we had for James on this album were high and he exceeded them all. The performance he did on the album is phenomenal and the fact that he can pull it off live makes it even better.
III is at once mercilessly chaotic yet more focused than the debut. Agree?
The goal we had for this album was to make it as aggressive as possible. The new songs have a much darker feel to them and they show the progression that we have had since the first album (no comparison). Everyone in the band has gotten better as musicians and the new members add to the equation as well.
Care to give some insight as to the inspiration/origin of the title?
"Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas" is Latin for shapeless, boundless inhumanity. This basically describes the music we are playing and the direction in which we are going. The title was originally "Inhuman Evolution," but John came up with the Latin title and it just fit better.
You've indicated in the past that James exhibits more versatile vocal ability than previous vocalist Mark. How did this direct ORIGIN's approach to the tri-vocal arrangement on III? Your vocals don't seem to stand out as much as on the debut while Paul's seem to have taken on a greater role.
James wrote almost all of the lyrics for this album and we worked together to get the arrangements of who does what for vocals. Most of the highs you hear by themselves are actually James, not Paul. James can go as low as I can, to as high as Paul can and in between. The guitar work on this album is much more complex than on the debut, so the vocals that Paul and I are doing have to be able to be done live, so that was taken into consideration when arranging vocals.
How did you guys approach production this time around as compared to the debut?
When recording the debut, we went right in and started recording the first day. We did the drums and bass together then went back in and recorded the guitars. Then, we recorded all three vocals at once. This time around, we spent a few days getting the right drum tones then recorded them with scratch guitar and bass tracks. We then spent time on getting guitar and bass tones and recorded them.Vocals were also recorded separately this time. We recorded at Studio One with Chris Djuricic again, but this time we had Colin Davis (Vile) come in and help produce the album with us. We used the whole "two minds are better than one" approach.
I know touring is extremely important to ORIGIN. What are your expectations for the Nile/Arch Enemy/Hate Eternal tour? What new songs are you particularly anxious to play?
We are expecting to play in front of big crowds and to get plenty of exposure with the new material. We HOPE that we will make friends with the bands we are going to be touring with. Tours are always a lot of fun, at least with every band we have toured with so far. We are only going to be playing three songs from the debut, so a lot of the new material will be played.
I know it's early but, given the relentless nature of III,where can ORIGIN go from here? Will things grow more extreme? Has ORIGIN written any new songs apart from the III set?
Things will always continue to get more extreme. There are some ideas in the works for new material already, but we'll see to where that leads. Right now, we're going to concentrate on pushing this album as much as possible.
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