Torrefy: The Infinity Complex

The second album from Canada's Torrefy, The Infinity Complex really should be renamed The Infinitely Complex… Fusing together black metal and prog under the driving force of thrash, these guys have so many chops they're thinking of opening karate classes. With an apocalyptic concept also in play, Torrefy have undoubtedly gone all in, but what they didn't really take into account is whether you can break down their wall of impressiveness and join them. Too often the impression that you're left with being one of grinda-chug guitars, screama-growl vocals and thunder-smack drums all hurtling past at breakneck speed, the full on effect a blur of colour and sound that in different circumstances could be a detailed thing of magnificent power. It's all in there somewhere but with the massively energetic John Ferguson barking furiously and a strangely dissatisfying need for Torrefy to continually squeeze as much as they possibly can into each fast-slow-growl-growl-slow song, the effect quickly becomes overbearing.

What doesn't help is that with only two of the nine tracks careening by in under five and a half minutes, for an album strangely packed with diverse approaches, different ideas and a genuine desire to not simply follow stereotypical paths, almost every song feels overlong and outstays its welcome. It's unkind to mention it, but the truth is that even on the first spin of this album, by the time I'd reached the mid-point of "Killed To Death" (track six), I'd committed the cardinal sin of pressing the buttons to see exactly how much of The Infinity Complex was still to come. The answer being nearly half an hour…

I'm being harsh; the guitar display from Ben Gerencser and Adam Henry a ferocious, pinpoint sideswipe of churning riffs everyone from Exodus and early Metallica to Emperor and Between The Buried And Me would be proud to call their own. With stinging lead work also from Henry, there's zero doubt that they guys are up to the job. Ferguson's vocals may prove a love it or hate it thing, the speed of his delivery sometimes toppling into dangerously incoherent howling, yet the ground he covers between clean crooning, speed metal yelps and extreme metal outbursts can't be discounted. With the rhythm section of Simon Smith (bass) and Daniel Laughy (drums) just about holding everything together as the ground below them constantly shifts and shakes while somehow remaining stationery, what the have achieved can't be underestimated either. However from "Celestial Warfare" to "The Singularity" via "Thrashist Dictator" and "Trial By Stone", I can't quite shake off the feeling that The Infinity Complex impresses much more than it enthrals. If Torrefy can rein in their excesses and incorporate the merest hint of a way in to their vision, they could be huge. As they are they feel like a huge opportunity being intentionally ignored.

Track Listing
1. Planck Epoch
2. The Singularity
3. Hypochongea
4. Blinding the Beholder
5. Thrashist Dictator
6. Killed to Death
7. Infinity Complex
8. Celestial Warfare
9. Trial by Stone

Added: June 4th 2017
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: The Infinity Complex on bandcamp
Hits: 1325
Language: english

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