The Official website of INFESTUM

Filip/Agonia Magazine & Promotion-
Infestum "Infestum" (Battle Hymn Records)
Rating : 4,5 / 6

The East of Europe used to surprise extreme metal fans with tight, uncomrpomising and above all totally straight forward releases. Infestum is another band which could be described like that. There is no doubt about it. If one can yet remember old good albums of Graveland, Infernum or Fullmoon then listening to Infestum the once forgotten and lost forever spirit of those bands will return through your loudspeakers with glory and fury bringing back the ancient warring metal!! Four guys from Belarus know how to tune their instruments, what sound they need, how to arrange a song and put there good riffs to make their music something like a poser holocaust. If you're looking for good uncompromising Black Metal, then you finally founded it! http://come.to/battlehymnrec ..

Unholy Page (unholypage.topcities.com)
INFESTUM"Infestum" MCD (Battle Hymn Rec.) 2002
Rating : 80/100

This young band comes from Minsk, Belarus, yessssss comes from those cold lands bringing us their cold and evil music. Five songs of Heathen Black Metal lasting 16:45 min. "Infestum" was recorded in Out Of Records studio and engineered by Eugene Tsilikov. Here they don't show anything new but they play with feeling and a particular sound specially on guitars. This is a good work of these guys and a good production too. I hope that they continue doing it,.....
"Secha (slashing)" begins with sounds like a battle, horses galoping, axes, screams and a martial rhythm the guitar riffs are very dirty, the voice is harsh very aggressive, quickly rhythms some of them very faster, it have a dark atmosphere, "Wolfish nocturne" begins with harmonic on a guitar and the other one with a simple but dirty and heavy riff, the rhythm is to mid tempo, here the voice continues very evil, "Victim of hate" is more extreme and quicly at the beginning, the riffs are some clean and melodical, and the voice shows evilness and hatred, with a part more slow, the guitars continues very dirty this is the particular sound of them, "Instrumental" is very nostalgic like going to a battle or returning after it with the victory, the guitar sound is more clean and it's very melodical, ens with flute. And "Night is waiting for the heroes" is more aggressive in the vein of Marduk, I could say, the guitars maintain their particular sound, the rhythms are very aggressive and ends with some voices and screams.

MUSIC EXTREME (http://www.musicextreme.com/)
INFESTUM - INFESTUM (Battle Hymn Records, 2001)

Infestum are a band from Belarus whose music can be described as something similar as vikin or pagan metal. But they have some old school death and black metal influences too. The music here is very raw with a lot of interesting melodies that give a lot of identity to the songs. The guitar sound is loud and distorted as hell (maybe they should mix it a little bit lower, not too much, to let more space for the keyboards). {infestum: there is no keyboards} There are a lot of extremely fast parts, but the more interesting moments are when this guys slow down a little bit as in "Wolfish Nocturna" where the guitars arrangements and keyboards shine more.
The drums have a weird sound in some places , sounding as a war drum !!! (also in "Wolfish...", and that fits really well the music). The vocals are typical from black metal bands (and are the ones that are more appropriated for the band music. If you like black metal, pagan metal or viking metal then you will surely like Infestum.

Favorite tracks: The five tracks are powerful and fast!!

Battle Zine
INFESTUM - "Infestum" mCD (Battle Hymn Records) 2001

Infestum was formed in June 2000, under the remains of the band Midgard, by Grond -drums and Skald -guitar. The other members of Midgard decided to leave the band. Soon Thorngrim -bass and Ion Kargan -vocal joined the band. During the winter of 2000-2001 they recorded the first demo ?Infestum¦.
Now "Infestum" was released in USA, by Battle Hymn Records, in mCD format, it contains 17 minutes of harsh and primitive Black Metal, influenced by Polish Pagan acts like Graveland. The sound is agressive, with agonizing vocals and dirty guitar. Based in past battles, so...the War spirit is here.
In October 2001, Grond, was forced to left the band and cease drums playing, because a permanent injury of knee, he was replaced by ex-Morbid Victory drummer, Burglar. Actually, they are working on new material, to be recorded soon in "Last Day Beforer the Endless Night", their full-length album.

Contamination level:06/10

Demonic Horde ([website])
INFESTUM (Belarus) "Infestum" MCD 2002 (Battle Hymn Records)

Surprising is the ferocity of this release. With a simplistic cover and (insect-like) logo, it's pretty short and but manages to keep me wanting more. Which is good because every song on here is a good one.
This band hails from Belarus and starts this out with a song called 'Secha' which begins with some ancient war drums roll and the beginning of the song then slowly fades in with some fast and well played layer of over distorted guitars and hellish screams and pounding drums. With a medium pace but a very harsh drenched and high octane production, the tone then changes with an interlude of folkish guitars toward the end of the song that crys out for a breath of fresh air after the blood was spilled from the previous onslaught.
The next track 'Wolfish Nocturne' is a bit slower and more doom sounding and with torturing vocals. 'Victim Of Hate' is arguably the best track on this. Very well thought and put together song structure and played very fast and tight. Also don't forget the cool instrumental, a fantastic interlude of victorious melody and pagan folkish pride put to metal. I recommend this to anyone into the extreme German and Polish hordes like Nordreich, Graveland, and Gontyna Kry and I think it will surprise many into this kind of dark metal music.

* written by Nocturnus (Desastrious/Helvintr - TX)

Vampire Magazine (www.vampire-magazine.com)
INFESTUM (Belarus) "Infestum" MCD 2002 (Battle Hymn Records)

INFESTUM are a young, relatively new band from Minsk, Belarus who rose from the ashes of MIDGARD. This self-titled demo was recorded during Winter 2000-2001 and now sees international release through american Battle Hymn records. A well-deserved release; these five short tracks are a diamond in the rough. These musicians are passionate about their Slavonic heritage and channel that passion into heathen, warlike black metal.
This music is straightforward, no-frills metal which reminds me sometimes vaguely of the old Bathory. Track 4, an instrumental, shows a slight folkloristic touch, but expect no happy violins or keyboard melodies! Infestum intend to be aggressive and that is when they are at their best: 'Night Is Waiting For The Heroes' seems to be the most 'rounded out' track, with a good dose of blasting and a couple of ferocious black metal riffs. Guitars are thick, slightly washing out the drums, which doesn't really matter because guitar melody & texture is what this music is about. This demo rocks; let's hope it serves them well to gain attention for future releases.

Reviewed by Maarten on September 30, 2002.

Panzerfaust zine / NBC webzine
INFESTUM - INFESTUM (Battle Hymn Records, 2001)

Well, well.. There are only few bands hailing from the east of Poland I 've heard, and propably only one
from Belarus. It's INFESTUM, and if each band from this country sounds like this one it has to be good UG
scene there! US label BATTLE HYMN decided to release this miniCD, titled "Infestum" because like they wrote in the letter: "INFESTUM are a young band out of Minsk, who we think deserves attention for their original ideas and the conviction that comes through on this release of heathen b - m". Nothing to add, I really agree with this sentence. But the beginnings weren't the best, after I listened to first seconds of this miniCD I was unsatisfied by the sound (guitars sound awfull!), but later, after some time I started to use to it and became to concentrate more on the music. INFESTUM's heathen music could be compared with such as ULVER's debut CD, FALKENBACH or above all GRAVELAND. There's similar, pagan, battle atmosphere, but Belarus band avoid to use such often the keyboards' parts. Also the vocals are different, they are much better (in arrangements and sounding) than on "Thousand Swords" for example. The music isn't monotonous, the opening “Secha (Slasing)” is a fast song, but next one “Wolfish Nocturne” is more calmer, slower with more monumental feeling in it. Also we have here "Instrumental" based on folk melodies (with fluet) and great “”Night Is Waiting For the Heroes” – my favourite one, fast like axe during the fight. Really good work from these guys! Hope that they will catch the attention of the maniax worldwide and the press. I hope also that they will answer my interview in the future!

P666………………………………………......80