Incredulous is yet another thrash act out of California, merely thirtyish years late to the party, but I'll cut them some slack since I'm pretty sure the members are all young enough to be my children. My thoughts during the first track were that this is mega lo-fi, but it sorta has a charm to it in that old school DIY way. It's instrumental, so it's definitely a showcase for the instrumentalists of the band, and they're all competent enough. The riffs are nice enough, sharp and melodic despite sounding like it was recorded on an answering machine, drumming is good and energetic if a little bit stock, nothing to outwardly dislike really but nothing jumps out of the speakers to grab my ears and force me to headbang like a maniac. While this is playing I think I'll look up some information on the members to see if my joke about them all being super young was accurate or not. Wait a minute... what's that I see in the picture of the vocalist? Is that an Embryonic Devourment shirt?? Oh no, he's gonna suck isn't he? The next three tracks confirm that yes, he's not very good. His bark at least has some effort behind it, so he can't be called lazy or just in the band for the sake of it, but his voice sounds like a blend of the lows and highs from Skeletonwitch, and that should theoretically rule, but with his voice pushed so far in the forefront it's really distracting and his mediocre skill is all the more apparent. I mean, not everybody needs to be Mads Haarlov, I get that, and it's neat to see a more extreme style of vocal in an ostensibly pure thrash band that takes on a deeper register instead of imitating Mille Petrozza for the fifty billionth time, but something about him just strikes me as really unrefined and way out of his league. In all honesty, the whole demo just smacks of a band that isn't ready yet. Granted, that's what demos are for so I'm not gonna trash them for it yet, but there's really nothing at all here to stand out. It's just thrash riffs and low barking. Almost any metalhead has heard that a thousand times before. It's very much a utilitarian release that shows up, does what it needs to do with very little consequence, and ends.
RATING: 38%
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