Insineratehymn | Irreverence Of The Divine | Memento Mori/Rotted Life

 

 Insineratehymn hail from Los Angeles and have been a steady force in the underground death metal scene, weaving together influences from across the genre’s darkest legacy. Their style is grounded firmly in the early-to-mid 1990s with audible traces of Deicide, Monstrosity, Sadistic Intent, Grave, and Demigod, while also flirting with the occasional dissonant menace popularized around the turn of the millennium. Formed with a singular devotion to the raw essence of death metal, the band takes pride in assembling compositions that feel authentic, venomous, and deeply rooted in genre tradition. Their 2022 release, “Disembodied,” brought them further recognition among purveyors of true death metal, but it’s with “Irreverence Of The Divine” that the band reaches a more sharpened and hellbound incarnation of their sound.

“Irreverence Of The Divine” is a deliberately hostile and atmospheric death metal album that understands its source material without treating it like a template. From the opening “Revelations…” acoustic passage to the final ringing hellscape of “Empyrean Desolation”, this album constructs a convincingly infernal world through tight pacing, thick production, and blasphemous energy. It channels early Florida morbidity, Nordic doom-laced riffing, and New York’s bruising stomp without sounding derivative or stitched together. Each track contributes to an arc that is as much about mood as it is about the violence of the riff.

Vocals are commanding and cavernous, rarely straying from an agonized growl that remains intelligible enough to carry its weight. Riffs are composed with thought—there's neither excess nor hesitation—and the drumming is relentless without ever overtaking the atmosphere. The dual guitar work frequently includes slow, tremolo-picked sequences that exude dread, erupting into grinding mid-paced grooves or sudden blasts. What makes the album work is its consistency: the sound is always locked in, with every transition reinforcing the overarching malignancy.

The album feels naturally sequenced. Whether it’s the surging punishment of “Cosmic Abominations” or the mid-tempo crush of “Mephitic Anamnesis”, the tracks complement one another and create the sense of a descent, a spiritual collapse. Solos on tracks like “Delusive Omniscience” and “Covenant Of The Virtuous” are melodic but tastefully buried within the mix—never ornamental, always spectral. There’s no moment that reaches for unnecessary grandeur. It is content to remain within its defined limits—hostile, focused, and grim—and that makes it more enduring than many of its peers.

The production feels like a proper extension of the music. It’s dreary but not impenetrable, thick but not overly compressed, allowing each element to coexist without sacrificing weight or clarity. The cover artwork by Edgar Roldan encapsulates the album’s theme: desecration, theological corruption, and divine mockery, visualized in baroque infernal imagery fitting for this kind of death metal.

Without feeling bloated or minimal, “Irreverence Of The Divine” is precisely the kind of release that appeals to listeners who want their death metal unrepentant, grim, and without gimmick. It neither reinvents anything nor attempts to. Its only concern is delivering death metal in the truest sense—as a vessel for darkness, decay, and ritual destruction. It fulfills that purpose with precision and sincerity.

Score: 8.0