Moldova’s own Infected Rain have been growing more and more popular seemingly by the day since signing with Napalm Records. Three albums into their partnership and they just released possibly their biggest album yet. They have been all over my socials and YouTube in the leadup to this release, and I’ve loved what I’ve heard so far! I only really know their singles, so I’m excited to dive in with a full album!
The album starts off heavy right from the offset with ‘BECAUSE I LET YOU’. The opening riff is awesome, chunky and groovy, and the quick pace of the verse behind Lena’s awesome harsh vocals carry on the energy perfectly. It’s the perfect blend of death, nu and industrial metal, and pretty unique and very interesting to listen to! The chorus is surprisingly catchy too, the power behind the vocals almost giving off Doro vibes. It drops down to a simple piano and clean vocal in the middle, adding a beautiful other later to the track. It also builds up back to the heaviness perfectly, and the final chorus is epic brilliance. What a fantastic way to open an album!
‘DYING LIGHT’ opens on another great filthy riff. Anything with the Gojira scrapes in it has my heart, and they’re done awesomely here. The vocals throughout are awesome, be it the duelling screams in the verse, the more operatic style of the pre, or the even heavier lower screams throughout. The rest of the band work overtime too, some awesome riffing going on as well as some awesome industrial/nu metal chugging. I can’t get enough of the blend of styles. The dropped-down ambient bit in the middle was cool, again adding a more dynamic edge to the track. And it again builds the heaviness back up perfectly. It’s an amazing track, and one that easily makes our playlist!
The lower, almost tribal opening of ‘NEVER TO RETURN’ was awesome, and really broke up the album well early on. The electronic instrumentation pulls it off incredibly well, and Lena’s clean vocals fit perfectly over the top. The vibrato she puts on the high notes is as impressive as it is haunting. And it means that when the heaviness explodes in with the crushing scream, drums and distorted guitar, it hits like a mac truck. The bridge riff is awesome and nearly heads into a pretty sick breakdown of sorts. The whole darker Egyptian-feel of the track is incredible, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Another that made our playlist!
Single ‘Lighthouse’ opens on an interesting spoken word bit from a little girl, setting the theme and scene up for the track perfectly. And I love that the band come in with a ch0nky riff but a clean vocal, giving off more of a symphonic metal feel. If you’re a fan of Within Temptation or Nightwish, you’ll love this song. It still gets heavy, for sure, but not until the breakdown a couple of minutes in. What a fucking breakdown it is too, damn. Her scream of course fits awesomely over the sick riff, and it fits the tone of the track surprisingly perfectly.
I loved the heavier take on the chorus after it too, the harsher vocal with the faint clean one behind it sounding massive. And it doesn’t over-stay its welcome either, going back to the cleaner stuff after. Shockingly, it’s a third straight track onto the playlist. I LOVE this song; it’s both beautiful and crushingly heavy, and has a great story and message to it.
Tracks like ‘THE ANSWER IS YOU’, ‘ENMITY’ and single ‘VIVARIUM’ are more straight up heavy awesomeness. The band almost remind me of the likes of Otep at these sort of times, especially in the former. Infected Rain do heavy so very well and I really like all three tracks. I simply don’t want to keep saying the same thing over and over and gushing too much in this review. They do all have bits of rest and dynamics throughout still, too. The final minutes of ‘ENMITY’ are particularly spectacular! I’d definitely recommend all three songs!
‘PANDEMONIUM’ definitely has some heaviness to it, but the synth running through it was amazing. It gave the track an almost an 80s pop vibe on top of their regular music. Also, the heavier verses that it wasn’t in were amazing, bouncy and a lot of fun. The riffing again is a massive highlight of the track, but honestly everything fitted together perfectly. It’s another excellent track!
Tracks like ‘UNPREDICTABLE’ and ‘PAURA’ are really interesting. The former opens on some beautiful clean vocals over an awesome riff before alternating between heaviness and a more symphonic sound. The same could be said for the latter, outside of the first minute and a half of build-up through the electronic drums and what I assume is Romanian (?). Again, both are two more fantastic, epic-feeling tracks!
‘GAME OF BLAME’ is very much the ballad of the album. The synth running throughout again gives it an 80s feel, but sounds awesome over the other keys. The distorted guitars come in in the choruses but with everything else going on it all feels massive and uplifting. It’s hugely catchy too with the cleaner vocals and the synth behind it. Heck, even when Lena screams in the second verse, it still has a ballad-like feel to it. It feels different while still maintaining the bands signature sound. And we still get a sick breakdown, one of the heaviest points of the album. This track has everything, and is another to make our playlist!
The closing track on the album is an ambient one, swells of synths and strings. It honestly fits the album pretty perfectly, and I couldn’t think of a better way to finish it all off. It ties a pretty bow around one hell of an album.
Overall: This is an awesome album. There isn’t a bad track on it and a number of them are up there with some of my all time favourite tracks from the Infected Rain. It’s easy to see why the band are rocketing in popularity recently, and this album will surely continue that upward trend. If you’re into the heavier side of metal, I’d recommend checking this out immediately. The album is sure to be up there in our album of the year list come December, I can assure you that!
The Score: 9/10