Rating: 9.0

Country: Sweden

Release Date: 2001

Record Label: Self Released

Track list:
1. Atrophy
2. Fall From The Pinnacle
3. Deprived of Life but not Dead

Rotinjected - Demo

Björn Johansson: Guitar
Conny Pettersson: Drums
Fredrik Schälin: Vocals
Andreas Allenmark: Guitar
Henrik Drake: Bass

Some time in 2000 or so, 3 of the 4 members of Anata, as well as guitarist Björn Johansson and drummer Conny Pettersson of Eternal Lies got together for a more straightforward death metal project - significantly removed from the technical and progressive proclivities of Anata and Eternal Lies' Gothenburg-tinged take on the genre. The result was this 3-song demo put out under the goofy moniker of RotInjected.

Professionally produced and performed, this is just under 10 minutes of high-quality, high-speed, Carcass-inspired death metal that easily rivals the output of many of the genre's established bands. The most apt comparison here is to Abramelin or early Aborted [before the metalcore influences started creeping into their sound]. Different as it is from Anata in its songwriting approach, RotInjected bears a lot of the same hallmarks that make Anata one of the standout bands in death metal today. First and foremost, these guys just have a knack for pumping out great riffs that grab the listener. There's a decent amount of old-school grapple & grind between the three tracks, but there are also a lot of the melodic flourishes that you'd hear in an Anata song - enough to suggest that this approach wouldn't wear thin over the course of a full-length album, unlike many bands that play a similar style.

The real highlight here, though, is the drumming of Conny Pettersson. Conny went on to join Anata after a stint in Eternal Lies, and based on his work here, it's easy to see why Anata immediately chose him to replace Robert Petersson [no relation]. Pettersson isn't just highly competent at all speeds, but also shows flashes of great creativity with his fills and plays some really ingenious patterns at times. Case-in-point, the two hi-hat breakdown at the 45-second mark on the third song "Deprived Of Life But Not Dead" - you'd be hard-pressed to find a cooler bit of percussion in an extreme metal song.

All in all, this is about as satisfying an extreme metal demo as you'll ever hear. It's unfortunate that RotInjected was dissolved not long after its release. A continuation of this project would've provided a great Yin to Anata's Yang, though all involved maintain that there is a possibility of the project being resumed in the future. The demo attracted significant label interest when it was first put out, so here's hoping that it's motivation enough to bring this band back. There's a lot of potential on this recording.

September 21st, 2007