Integrity - Den Of Iniquity

Integrity - Den Of Iniquity
Released by: Magic Bullet Records
Released on: October 30th, 2015.
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Following August's reissue of Palm Sunday, Magic Bullet Records offers up the next official reissue from Cleveland's legendary Integrity. This is a pretty massive twenty-three track compilation of rare tracks, early demos, compilation tracks and assorted bits and pieces not included on formal albums all taken from the early days of the band's run (technically 'The Melnick Era” of 1988 through 1998 so named for the presence of guitarist Aaron 'A2' Melnick).

It's all presented here remastered from the original tapes and it starts off with March Of The Damned and Darkness, both originally released on the Grace Of The Unholy single. March starts off with a sort of dreamy tone to it but it gets dark and weird as it progresses and Dwid Hellion's vocals seem to be channeling Venom's Kronos in spots. Darkness is well named, as it's a pretty killer mix of punk-metal crossover played fast with the vocals sounding completely deranged.

From there, we get the three tracks originally recorded on the Harder They Fall demo - Live It Down, Bringing It Back and Dead Wrong. This material has a bit more of a sludgy sound to it than the first two tracks. The songs are shorter and the first two are not quite as aggressive, more doomy in spots. Interesting to hear and a weird deviation. Dead Wrong, however, is a blistering ninety seconds of anger and speed.

From there we get a cool mix of compilation tracks and tracks from different splits. Jimson Isolation from the Dark Empire Strikes Back compilation and Dawn Of The New Apocalypse from a 7” split done with Pale Creation are both here and present the band in fine form - lots of distortion in the mix, crashing cymbals and fuzzy guitars and Hellion wailing away like he's on a one way trip to Hell. ATF Assault, from a 7” split done with KOWH has noticeably better sound quality than the other material we've heard thus far, it's better recorded and the drums here are as impressive in their technicality as they are bombastic. Hellion's going off like a banshee on this one too.

All Is Lost, from the original CD release of Taste Of Every, is a pretty straight ahead punk rock number musically speaking, but Hellion again takes the vocals in a more tortured direction. This sounds like early Poison Idea. Sarin, from a 7” split done with Psywarfare, is a bunch of crusty, sludgy and almost death metal sounds all mixed into one while Divinity In Exile, from a 7” split with Lockweld, is just heavy doom style metal, the kind that knocks you down and runs you over. Check it out - Evacuate, also from Dark Empire Strikes Back, is a pretty killer cover of the classic Negative Approach song. Integrity makes it their own but the Negative Approach influence is evident in a fair bit of their material so this cover not only makes sense, but it kicks ass too. Learn How To Die, also from that Psywarfare split, has a trippy, weird sort of 'warped tape' sounding intro that keeps going and turns into an even weirder track made up of stuff played at different speeds and played backwards. At five and a half minutes in length it's a bit much but it's interesting in that it ends the way it begins. You could probably play this on loop and travel to a different dimension if you wanted. Fear: The True Name Of Beauty, another track from the Lockweld split, is a strange spoken word piece overtop of weird psychedelic sounds.

Die Hard and Hollow are live tracks from the No Exit Compilation, starting off with Hellion talking about how violent Cleveland is. Live, Integrity at this point was a bit more punk rock than experimental metal but they slay here. They sound great. Jagged Visions 96, from the KOWH 7”, mixes up the weird backwards/tape effects ideas they were playing with at this point with the more 'understood' Integrity sound, which makes for an interesting experiment. Eighteen, recorded live from Studio A and originally included as a Den Of Iniquity bonus track on the first release, is a reasonably psychedelic track with Hellion actually singing rather than wailing or hollering. It's not what you would call calm per se, but as far as Integrity are concerned this is definitely on the mellow side of things.

B.A.T.F. Would Be Proud was originally released on a 7” with Hatebreed and as you'd probably guess, it sees the band go straight into metallic hardcore territory (if you're going to release a 7” with Hatebreed this is probably a rule). They do this well, this track is no exception. Kingdom Of Heaven and Rebirth, originally released on a 7” with Mayday, are both sludgy, sort of doom inspired tracks, played with the band's trademark thrashy sound and with Hellion once again taking his vocals to another planet. Rounding out the collection are the original version of Eighteen from the Den Of Iniquity original CD release (played in much the same style as the live version but with noticeably better sound quality - makes sense, since this is a studio recording) and Silence Ever After from the final Taste Of Every Sin CD release. Silence Ever After is a pretty epic track at nine and a half minutes in length and it's a weird one - mostly the band making odd noises over a repetitive, droning sound that could be a synthesizer of some sort with Hellion making odd spoken word contributions here and there. It's almost got a sort of Middle Eastern sound to it.

All in all, this is a pretty great collection showcasing just how ridiculously diverse Integrity are when they want to be. It's easy to lump them in with the hardcore/punk/metal crossover movement and to an extent they do belong to it, but on some of these more obscure tracks they venture deep into psychedelia and art rock with interesting results. The sound quality here is pretty solid too. Maybe not the best starting point for those new to the band but for those who already have a taste for what these guys do, it's pretty much essential.