By Rob Kachluba
One of my most anticipated releases of the year has finally arrived in Fear of Infinity. Now let me begin by saying at first I was a bit let down on this album and I have two major reasons why. While Heaven Wept has always created epic, melodic, sorrow filled doom metal and on there last few releases they usually took a lot of time between CDs. They wrote and rewrote the songs until they felt right for the band; that level of perfection is why they became such classic doom releases. Some songs on their previous album were almost ten years old. Also, on Fear Of Infinity they pretty much gave up their doom roots for a more trad metal sound and this new CD, being their first for Nuclear Blast, was released relativity quickly (I believe in like two years). I initially felt the album was rushed and was lacking the great hooks and riffs that made me fall in love with the band in the first place but after my first initial listings the album now has hit me like a ton of bricks and now sits right up perfectly with rest of their discography.
With Vast Oceans Lachrymose being my all time fave it was going to be hard to top that one but on Fear of Infinity they have created a worthy successor. Opener “Hour of Reprisal” blasts its way off the top and pretty much keeps that tempo throughout. Right of the bat they have a massive production with tight sharp sounding drums that propel the opening song into a whirlwind of thrashy controlled chaos. “Destoyer of Solace” has a more mid tempo type of trad metal sound with a wicked pre-chorus harmonized vocal melody that is brilliant to say the least. It ends quite fast at around the 2:40 mark, followed by the song “Obsessions Now Effigies”. It relives some of their glorious epic doom metal with a pounding riff that has an underlying melody so reminiscent of Of Empires Forlorn. It is so wonderful to hear vocalist Rain’s amazing talents weave melodies like they were nothing. I love his tone, it is so warm and soothing.
Now the utilmate track for me is “Saturn and Sacrifice”, both musically and lyrically. Another huge riff opens the song followed by a harmonized second guitar that then plods along like a lumerbering jackhammer that goes into another classic WHW chorus. Rain sounds absolutely ferocious on this track. The song speeds up in the mid section and then comes back down to another amazing riff and vocal melody. Superb. Closer “Finality” is the closest you will hear to the good old days of Empires of Forlorn, a ten minute epic that will just melt your heart. I can’t say enough how unique and epic this band is. Sure , they may have lost a lot of their doom but I think this has made them even more of a better band. It gives the music and riffs much more room to breathe and I find there is a lot more varation on the tempos that has helped modernize their sound without falling into any trendy sterotypes. Now if only they will play “Saturn and Sacrifice” at Progpower this September…
(Nuclear Blast)
Fear Of Infinity will be released in North America on Nuclear Blast USA on May 3rd, 2011.
