Crematory - Infinity (2010) - In the mood of a compilation album - 65% (06/10/10)

After the atmospheric and eerie masterpiece "Pray", Crematory come back with a new record not even two years after the last one. Having bought this album in its very interesting limited box set (1000 kits worldwide, just like the two previous box sets) format with a t-shirt, poster, sticker, autograph card and patch, I normally expected much from this album but this one couldn't meet with my high hopes and expectations.

First of all, from the beginning of the title track on, you will already recognize the main problem of this album: it doesn't have a continuing mood or very strong atmosphere and the band even copies itself and sounds exactly like on their earlier album jsut before their split-up almost ten years ago.

This album is much heavier than the previously released "Pray". The title track "Infinity", still one of the strongest ones in here, gets in a more metallic direction and "Where are you now" is almost thrash metal orientated and maybe the heaviest and most agressive song that this band has ever written. Those songs of the album go partially back to the death rootks of the band.

On the other hand, you have very soft, maybe too quiet songs like the ballad "Broken halo" which is just sung by guitar player Matthias Hechler and even though this song tries something new, the typical growls and typical atmosphere of the band is missing here.

And then, you have a lot of songs where the band just repeats itself. "Sense of time" is a quiet catchy song without any doubt but it sounds like a mixture of "Left the ground" and "Tears of time". The Depeche Mode cover "Black celebration" tries in vain to copy the spirit of the original version and the band maybe tried to copy its success with the Sisters of Mercy cover "Temple of love" who has become a scene hit and one of the band's most well known songs, but the attempt completely fails. "Auf der Flucht" tries to be the band's typical ballad and repeat the success of their German language albums "Crematory" and "Klagebilder" but it has neither the class of the bands previous ballads, nor the innovating and fresh atmosphere of their first songs in German and has sadly to go down as a fail.

As I said, the main problem of the album is that it has no straight line, no certain atmosphere and it works more like a compilation album, as if the band had taken unused songs from several recording session, rearranged them and put them on one album. From the boring radio ballad and uninspired cover version to two songs partially sung in German and a few heavy thrash-death metal orientated songs, you really get almost everything on this album and if you just take the song itself and listen to it, you may really like it and look at it from another point of view, but as a whole album, this doesn't really work. If you accept that this album is nothing new and innovating and copying the different styles that the band has used throughout its career and listen to it like if you would listen to a compilation album, you could really like it though and may give it a try.

And this compilation style is maybe another advantage. If you don't know much about this band yet and you want to discover how they can sound, this album will show you many interesting and different ways. For new fans, this record may be a great occasion to get into the world of Crematory and from an objective point of view, this record may be even more adequate for new fans than for the traditional Crematory fans. In that way, this album still offers you a lot to discover.

After all, I have accepted the compilation style of this album after a while and discovered a few really catchy songs, especially the first three ones of the album which everyone would like who really appreciates this band, and I finally don't regret my buy.