When a band has the most successful time frame that they have known, how do you try and build on that success? Well, Infected Rain and releasing their fifth full-length album to continue the incredible momentum that they have.
The previous release Ecdysis saw them debut on the Top 20 US Current Hard Music chart, with hundreds of thousands of streams and views and impressive media coverage as well as performing alongside bands such as Butcher Babies and Wednesday 13 and on some of the biggest festival stages across the world.
So, on this crest of a wave, this could be seen as a crossroads moment for the band and the importance of a great record cannot be underestimated. Therefore, it really shouldn’t come as much of a shock to find that the band are pulling out stops that you may have never associated with the band as they include some surprising experimental pieces, such as a little electronic dance beat dropping in and out throughout ‘Dying Light’.
Let me go back a little though, the album begins with ‘Because I Let You’ and the impressive vocals of Lena Scissorhands come to the fore straight away, with the combinations of styles and delivery – there isn’t much that she can’t do. I mean the brutal delivery she performs and then providing a Portishead-like vocal on ‘Never to Return’ really is impressive and then ‘Lighthouse’ starts with an Evanescence feel.
A good vocal however is worth nothing without the backing of the band. The drums are swift and pack some punch, discreetly at times the double kick gets some hammer. The bass provides a top-drawer tone and feel for each of the tracks and the guitar then builds and provides chopping and chugging – before we then have the odd addition of random instruments that add that experimental angle.
Time will certainly continue the impressive attention that the band have worked so hard for and should push them up those festival line-ups. The way that they seamlessly incorporate these differing elements is refreshing and fun to listen to. In a market where the modern metal can feel quite the samey, Infected Rain certainly stands out from that crowd and has produced something that is pretty special and that they should be proud of.
Infected Rain could be showing that they are the future of Metal and Time be that album that changes it all.
Time will be released on Friday 9th February 2024 via Napalm Records.
Review: Ed Ford
Tracklist
- BECAUSE I LET YOU
2. DYING LIGHT
3. NEVER TO RETURN
4. LIGHTHOUSE
5. THE ANSWER IS YOU
6. VIVARIUM
7. PANDEMONIUM
8. ENMITY
9. UNPREDICTABLE
10. GAME OF BLAME
11. PAURA
12. A SECOND OR A THOUSAND YEARS
Online
https://www.facebook.com/infectedrain
https://www.instagram.com/infectedrain_official