CREMATORY – Infinity

Ever since Crematory began to take its first breaths of air in the Metal world, it seemed that there was nothing that could stop them on their way to becoming one of the best, if maybe obsolete, Extreme Gothic Metal band around. For almost 20 years now, Crematory landed albums of true metallic taste which established them a strong stature in their homeland as well as in the world.

From the pits of their earliest hitters as Just Dreaming, Crematory and the wonderful Act Seven, Crematory kept on being diverse, strong and fierce as it invaded to the new millennia with Revolution, the tribute German based release for their local fans – Klagebilder and now, with a flash, comes out the raging great of Infinity. This album shows that even if it isn’t Act Seven or Revolution, this old band still bangs hard enough to captivate new and old fans of their enhanced Gothic music.

As this album is no stranger to the wits (production wise and you can say that even material wise because we are looking on the same direction when it comes to the musical writing) of its previous albums as Pray and Klagebilder, the blazing new Infinity indicates that there is a long living flame within the hearts of this five piece group. This flicker comes up in several shapes like the everlasting cooperation between lead growl vocals, Felix Stass and the long time guitarist/soft vocal man, Matthias Hechler. Without a doubt, these two chaps complement each other just as the good can’t live without its beastly evil brother. On Infinity, these two continue their partnership with finesse. Also on the album there is the awesome dark and diverse musical atmosphere provided by the genius mind of keyboard veteran Katrin Jullich following the joint venture of her husband’s simple yet kicking drumming and the meat grinding guitars and bass by Hechler and Harald Heine.

From this wholesome speed and power came out moshing bangers to the side of dramatic soft liners that have true potential. Coming out your way are “Infinity”, “A Story About”, “Broken Halo”, “Sense Of Time”, “Where Are You Now” and the wonderful Germanic smasher “Auf Der Flucht”. If you are interested in covers, Crematory did a nice version of the old Depeche Mode hit “Black Celebration”, expect it to be brutal as it is the Crematory way.

Overall, you have here a good album by a veteran band that has a lot to propose. When it comes to dark material, they will succeed if they will hang onto their current form.