It all started at Biola University, California. Roland introduced Jairus to Jeff and Nathan, and they decided to write some songs and try to get on a compilation album, just to prove that Christians could shred as well as anyone. It turned out to be a venture that became a very well loved underground death metal outfit, called Inversion. Over the few years of Inversion's existence, they went through some member changes. Nathan left for educational and occupational reasons, and quickly after Jeff and Jairus were looking for new members. As luck would have it Justin and Mike had just started at Biola, and were looking to sink their teeth into some pure metal madness. Justin had a friend named Raymond who was a machine gun on the drums. So with Jeff shredding, Mike throwing the low end, Jairus handling the low growls, Justin hitting shrieks and Raymond beating the kit, Inversion was ready to rip some faces up!!

THE NATURE OF DEPRAVITY (2000) INDEPENDENT

  1. Apocalyptic
  2. Darkened By Hatred
  3. Unsung Hero
  4. If Not Emasculated
  5. Sex With Death
  6. Thieves
  7. Defilement
  8. Independence
  9. Salt Solution Homicide
  10. Tears Of Blood From An Angel In Mourning
  11. The Butchering Of Relative Thinking
  12. Damnation Undone

Unlisted bonus-tracks:

  1. Reflections (silence)
  2. Resolution
  3. Stillborn Piety - demo
  4. Upheld - demo
  5. Night Falls - demo
  6. Without Excuse

Line-up:

Jairus - Lead Throat

Nathan - Acoustic Guitars, Lead Vocals on 4, 6, 8, 9

Jeff - Guitars, Bass, Lead Vocals on 12

Dave - Drums

Getting internet back in the late '90's rekindled my love for Christian metal. I kept on rediscovering all the classics, and at the same time found out about all these new bands out there. Inversion was a name that kept popping up. At the time I was not as interested in death metal as I used to, but I figured I'd give all these new Christian acts a chance. And man, this was a pleasant surprise! As said, I usually don't care much for death metal with this kind of growling vocals (sounds like an over-hungry stomach!), but these guys still managed to convince me. Sounding a bit like bands such as Obituary and Cannibal Corpse, Inversion also ad elements of black and thrash metal to keep it interesting. It's not full speed all the time, but tempo-changes and use of different vocal-styles are also key ingredients. The band even made room for an acoustic ballad, with clean vocals, here!! The production is also quite good for an independent-release.

'The Nature Of Depravity' gave me the same feeling as hearing Biogenesis and Ultimatum for the first time, no comparison in style to these bands though. Sadly the band seemed to diminish as quickly as they showed up.

The album comes with the 3 tracks from the 'Tarsus Burning' demo, and 3 other songs, as unlisted bonus tracks. "Reflections" is a blank track, or 30 seconds of silence. "Resolution" is a prayer with background jamming.

Killer tracks: Unsung Hero, If Not Emasculated, Thieves, Damnation Undone