Eremita Produzioni, 2015
Genre: Black Metal
1. Preludio
2. Verso il Tramonto
3. Rinascera' dal Fuoco
4. Sangue e Suolo
5. Tempesta I
6. Tempesta II
7. Tempesta III
8. Lugore II
After the excellent release of "Rovine e Disperazione" I was surprised to see Infamous return so quickly with "Tempesta". I really shouldn't be, looking at how often they release material it makes sense, I just lost track of time and wasn't paying much attention to anything! Either way, I was one of the lucky ones to get a copy of this wonderful digipak release limited to 100 hand-numbered copies, of which I own #5.
As we've come to expect "Tempesta" is harsh dose of Sargeist infused Black Metal. A lot of the atmospheric elements typically found in the Infamous style seem to have been stripped away from "Tempesta" in the first few tracks. I'm a little saddened by this, because looking at that cover I thought things would get even more atmospheric! I also felt that atmosphere put into their works is what really separated Infamous from the Finnish style and made them stand-out as a real interesting blend. The atmosphere takes over the song "Sangue e Suolo" and at this point I'm hoping this is sort of a prelude of things to come for the title arc. Even though the song starts with a heavy Horna opening, it quickly transitions into a cold and meandering atmosphere, which truly reflects the cover of the album and what I was hoping to find somewhere on this release. The "Tempesta" trilogy isn't very atmospheric, but it's still quite good. Here we return to the Sargeist style, with an interesting deviation for "Tempesta II" where the song is far more up beat than the others. The album closes with the beautiful and somber "Lugore II", which is an instrumental track, but extremely well written Black Metal nonetheless.
In the end, I did quite enjoy "Tempesta", but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I'd really like to see Infamous up the ante a bit more and blend those somber and atmospheric elements into their Sargeist core a lot more. I think that would really create a stunning and interesting listen. "Tempesta" is a bit more stripped down and a grittier album, which really lives up to the "Torrid Black Metal" moniker behind the CD. So, if you really love the Finnish sound then the new Infamous will not steer you wrong, it has that infusion of the really thin and haunting feel I hear from the harsher Italian sound, so in that regard it's a bit of a regional blend. I still want to see if Infamous can push things further though, you can really hear the potential throughout their catalog, which could trend to something quite interesting and unique. I'm definitely looking forward to hear what could possibly be next for us!
Eremita Produzioni, 2014
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
1. Disperazione I
2. Rovine I
3. Rovine II
4. Rovine III
5. Disperazione II
It is with "Rovine e Disperazione" that swiftly caught my attention when I started hearing samples during its time of release. Infamous have truly crafted something wonderful with this album. As soon as I heard the samples for this I swiftly tracked down this album and I was lucky enough to get a copy. Like their first album, this is also limited to 200 copies.
Prior to this, I had really only heard one song off this album and decided to back track their discography first. "Rovine e Disperazione" is definitely the high point of their discography. This album returns to just S.A. handling everything and this makes things all the better, because I do prefer his vocals over the vocalist he had participate on "Abisso". I think S.A. has a darker quality to his voice that melds with Infamous' sound a lot more cleanly... also, the no clean singing works better for this band. "Rovine e Disperazione" really brings this bands sound to the highest points. I hear tinges of ColdWorld being melded with their usual Sargeist core riffing and this creates a wonderfully cold and desolate blend to the music. All the while having this sort of majestic and soaring quality. It's actually a blend I've been experimenting with in my own music and it really creates a wonderful texture to the music. Infamous' dense production really makes that blend work quite well, which is where that hopeless desolate feeling comes into play for their sound. Their additional inclusion of more clean guitar sections really pulls this album together in an even stronger fashion, if that's possible at this point. We saw that showing up with "Abisso", but here they've included it in more sections and the blend with music is simply beautiful. It really gives the music a more dynamic quality where it lulls the listener before returning to the Black Metal, which is perfect for a more atmospheric approach to the music.
"Rovine e Disperazione" is an album that really impressed me. The palette with which S.A. is playing is very interesting and isn't just a rehashing of things we've heard before, despite the fact that the blend is from well known projects. He's managed to bring us something that sounds relatively fresh from the nature of the production quality and so on. There's a decent chance this will wind up in my top 10 for 2014 list, it really is that strong. I highly recommend this for fans of Sargeist, ColdWorld, and more atmospheric Black Metal in general.
Novecento Produzioni, 2013
Genre: Black Metal
1. Acid Disease
2. Antarctica
3. III
4. Abisso
5. Life's Erosion
6. Isolation
Infamous return after a couple years with only an EP... I'm actually not entirely sure how this qualifies as an EP being six songs and over thirty minutes in length... but that's what they're calling it. There has been some slight shifting in the line-up. The core musician writing and performing the music is still here, but in addition a vocalist has been added with Wlku and they have also written the lyrics. Given how much I liked S.A.' vocals on the prior split, I'm sort of sad to see this, but Wlku did a decent job with the music.
Infamous continue where their debut left off with their strange interplay between upbeat sections and utterly depressing passages, fueled through riffing inspired by Sargeist. I think they are still playing with how to best execute these elements, but "Abisso" offers some decent material. If you enjoyed the debut "Abisso" really picks up where that left off and I can't imagine anyone being too disappointed in this release. They've moved away from keyboards to create that melancholic texture during sections, and instead have fallen into using clean guitar styled passages. This sounds a lot better with their sound and chord structurings. Just listen to how well "Life's Erosion" closes. I would really love to see them do more in this vein. The only complaint I have with this recording is that with the new vocalist they seem to experiment with some clean vocal sections. Luckily this is not something that shows up very often, but in the opening song there are a couple parts with clean vocals. Here they work okay, because they're quite low in the mix and give a sort of dark feel to the music. However, when they show up again in "III", they're more in the foreground of the mix and it just sounds awful. Again, this is only one section of the song, but it really marred the whole thing for me.
Overeally, this is a decent EP/Full-Length, depending on what you'd want to call it. I don't think it's quite as good as "Of Solitude and Silence", but they are experimenting with elements that could make their songs stronger. Other elements make it weaker, so you wind up with ups and downs quite often on this release. Hopefully, some of the experimentation will be sorted out by the next release. I do like the vast majority of the material.
Maa Productions, 2013
Genre: Black Metal
Désespoir:
1. Intro - Anthems of Misery
2. In My World of Silence
3. Morgen: Grauen
4. Im Auge des Sturms
Suicidal Years:
5. No More Life
6. In My Dreams
7. The Last Sail
Infamous:
8. Ground's Entrails
9. Shadow I
10. Solitude
Lux Funestus:
11. July Sound
12. Ausencia de Sentimientos
13. When the Summer Breeze... Brings Your Memory
Side Désespoir: ...coming eventually...
Side Suicidal Years: ...coming eventually...
Side Lux Funestus: ...coming eventually...
Side Infamous:
I've missed out on the prior years compilation, so my collection picks up with this four way split. A couple of the tracks from the compilation are re-recorded here. I tend to hate these kinds of splits, because bands can be drastically different, but sometimes good material can show up here. As with other releases involving Infamous, this is limited to 500 copies. Also, as with Infamous releases, there isn't much in the way of a booklet. Just a folded sheet with band names and liner notes about the recordings and members only. Since it covers all four bands things are a little cramped in the interior of the book.
Infamous submit three songs to this compilation. It opens with a new song called "Ground's Entrails" and it is quite short. It doesn't have the usual atmosphere from Infamous though and feels very different. It's a very upbeat song in the vein of Sargeist, but also has some atmospheric moments as before, but it's hard to get immersed in the song since it is only a little over three minutes in length. Plus the abrupt mood changes makes the song feel fairly flawed at times. I hope this is not a new direction for the band, but I will say I like the vocal performance a lot more. They're more of a mid-ranged style of Black Metal as opposed to the higher pitched screams on the debut full-length. At times the tone feels similar to M. from Mgla. The other two songs are much better in my opinion. "Shadow I" appeared on the compilation from 2012, but I have no idea what year this was originally made. This song is quite well done and more in line with what heard on the debut album. It has its upbeat moments, but it really closes on this dense and dark tone that is just awesome. I really love where this song wound up going. The closing track "Solitude" is actually taken from the demo from 2011. This is a really great song and it conjures up memories of what Cendres has done on their tape. It has this tense dissonance to the song, which creates this sort of chilling and haunting feel. I thought this was pretty well done. The only issue, is that since this is an older song, they tried to use the more high-pitched vocals the whole time, which sort of takes away from the musical experience a little bit. But overall it is a fine song.
In the end we have three extremely different songs from Infamous. I tend to like the older lengthier material. Perhaps the new song was just an experiment, to see how it would be received in the community and hence it only appears on the split. Regardless, based on the full-length, I look forward to what is coming next from this project.
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Novecento Produzioni, 2011
Genre: Black Metal
1. Of Solitude and Silence
2. Rex Verminorum
3. Grey Euphoria
4. Human Scum
5. Spiritual Desolation
6. Lugore
I got interested in this project when I heard their recent 2014 release. From there I decided to start back tracking the project and despite having a name that isn't very good, the music is actually really well done. So, naturally by this time I had long missed out on demos, of which there is one before this. I've also missed out on the original pressing of this album, since it was limited to 200 copies. So, I've since picked up the repress by Obscure Abhorrence from 2013 pictured on the right.
The first thing you'll notice about this band is how dense the production feels. It's almost as if you are under water in many ways, and while many people will likely make-fun of that quality, it really works with the style Infamous going after. The majority of the riffs on this album seem to be inspired from Sargeist primarily, but giving it this production quality gives the music an extremely different feel. Not all of the riffs keep this feel though and there are aspects of songs I don't like that much, such as "Spiritual Desolation" when the slow riff plays with the keyboard. It just doesn't feel in place with the atmosphere of the album. Some parts just sound uplifting amidst all the depressive elements surrounding those sections. Infamous does seem to pull a lot from the Depressive Suicidal scene of Black Metal, but their approach to the creation of the music feels very different. While they do seem to have the higher pitched vocal element, the vocals are mixed so far in the background as to not be annoying or overwhelming. This is probably one of the major reasons I could get into this release.
This is actually a pretty good debut album. It certainly doesn't bring that much new to the world of Black Metal, but it does have a certain level of quality that I can appreciate quite a bit. For the listeners, now it is just a waiting game to see if Infamous can write something that goes beyond their mere influences, something that is entirely their own really. Starting with a strong debut like this gives me a lot of hope that better things will come. Failing originality, at the bare minimum we are guaranteed some well done Black Metal.
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