INFINITE AND DIVINE – Silver Lining
- Posted on 22-05-2021
The Swedish act Infinite and Divine turned out to be a most pleasant surprise to these ears and a good mixture of melodic heavy metal with symphonic leanings and hard rock, and there is a tinge of melancholy and sadness to the song material in general that I find quite appealing. The outfit is essentially a duo consisting of vocalist Tezzi Persson and multi-instrumentalist Jan Åkesson, and judging by the compositions that constitute "Silver Lining", which is their debut effort, there is a good chemistry between the two musicians and they complement each other superbly throughout.
With its thick-sounding and meaty riffs as well as its strong and memorable vocal melodies, the whole affair sounds big but without turning into a pompous mess. The keyboards are pushed to the front and are rather prominent in the mix, but they rarely feel intrusive or devoid of purpose, and they work really well in tandem with the tasty solos and Åkesson’s muscular guitar wizardry. The beefy production also emphasizes and highlights the epic and orchestrated vibe of the tunes, but it retains a subtle sense of something raw, which in turn means that it stands out from many similar-sounding offerings in that it is less polished and not quite as slick as several other outputs are.
"Silver Lining" is elegantly written with the catchiest anthems being "Keep on Moving", "Wasteland", and "We Are One", and it simply works for me on many different levels with the only real downsides being the less inspired and mundane tracks titled "Off the End of the World" and "While You’re Looking for Love". Very cool and promising stuff for sure.