ALBUM REVIEW: Time – Infected Rain
INFECTED RAIN have experienced a lot over the past two decades. Fast forward 17 years from their formation back in 2008 and the Moldovan progressive metal quartet have now toured with BUTCHER BABIES and WEDNESDAY 13, reached the top 20 of the US Current Hard Music Charts and released five studio albums, with their upcoming sixth effort Time being revealed this Friday via Napalm Records. Despite their latest effort Ecdysis only being unveiled a little over two years ago, it is evidently clear that INFECTED RAIN are back with a vengeance yet again. It’s the first album featuring their new bassist Alice Lane after the unexpected departure of the Babich brothers early last year, and it differs from its predecessor due to the successful use of electronic and somewhat surprising nu-metal elements.
The album opens with Because I Let You and it blows listeners away with its head-bopping guitar riff, not to mention the sudden introduction of lead vocalist Lena Scissorhands‘ impactful and powerful vocals. This track has so much gritty energy, it’s instantly infectious. It is in Scissorhands‘ unclean vocals though where you really witness her raw personal pain and anguish over a former lover, whilst she growls the chorus: “Love! A thorny rose with petals red / It feels so good, it hurts so bad.” Next track Dying Light starts off on a fantastic note with a bouncy djent SPIRITBOX style opening riff leading the way. This energy continues throughout, the listener fully engaged from start to finish in one of the album’s immediate highlights.
Never To Return is a slower track that really highlights Scissorhands‘ raw vocal ability. Lighthouse adds a quirky almost intergalactic feel to proceedings with a computer-altered female spoken word passage kicking things off, which comes somewhat out of the blue. Scissorhands‘ softer vocal style gives a slightly different flavour than may have been expected, but it is a welcome surprise. The Answer Is You is completely contrasting, taking a disparate turn with the use of heavily distorted guitars and consequently creating a thumping nu-metal style riff which is hard to ignore.
Vivarium is dissimilar again with techno-inspired electronic elements at the helm. From the first instance, this track has a prominent JINJER feel about it, but with more electro influences. In Pandemonium, Scissorhands almost sounds like EVANESCENCE‘s Amy Lee in terms of clean vocal style. In addition to this, the instrumental seems to have an almost gothic metal feel to it in the chorus. Enmity continues on with that space-like feel in the first couple of seconds before leaping straight in with Scissorhands‘ impeccable vocals, which here even seem to draw subtle influence from BUTCHER BABIES. Unpredictable is next and it happens to perfectly sum up our exact thoughts of this release. Again there seems to be more vocal influence from BUTCHER BABIES here, whilst distorted sound effects gently hum in the background.
Game Of Blame is another softer effort, but that doesn’t mean it should be totally disregarded. This song has a sense of calm which is seemingly effortless and genuine. Paura is an interesting addition to Time, and is again unexpected to say the least. Scissorhands‘ speaks in what is presumably Moldovan whilst soft electronic notes murmur in the background. Closer A Second Or A Thousand Years is purely instrumental in nature. It has a haunting yet comforting feel about it, feeling somewhat reminiscent of AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR‘s latest work. This track closes the book on a ferocious and intriguing effort from INFECTED RAIN.
Time is a powerful and heartfelt time capsule of Lena Scissorhands‘ personal emotions and feelings of the last couple of years, which is sure to keep you fully engaged from beginning to end. From hearing this album, you can instantly recognise that INFECTED RAIN have been in the musical game for a long time. This band are pushing their classic progressive metal sound that we all know and love, but giving it a slight refresh with the introduction of nu-metal and fuzzy electronic elements that are more than welcome at this point in their career.
Rating: 8/10
Time is set for release on February 9th via Napalm Records.
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