INFANT ISLAND — Obsidian Wreath (review)

INFANT ISLAND — Obsidian Wreath album cover

Album · 2024 · Hardcore Punk

4/5 · 2024-01-27
siLLy puPPy

Blackened post-screamo metal coming at ya from Fredericksburg, VA, the noisily melodic band called INFANT ISLAND has been around since 2016 and released an EP, a couple of splits and now in 2024 releasing its third album OBSIDIAN WREATH out on the Secret Voice label. Wading in crazy murky waters that exist somewhere between blackgaze, post-metal and the obnoxiously loud hardcore punk derivative, screamo, INFANT ISLAND stands out as one of the noisiest bands that finds interesting ways in its production and atmospheric embellishments to stand out from the throngs of metal bands these days.

Following in the footsteps of 2020’s “Beneath,” INFANT ISLAND has continued down the road that blends the blackgaze postiness of bands like Deafhaven with the instrument rich textures of neighboring Kentucky’s Panopticon. Add some screamo rage in the vocal department and a bit of metalcore at key moments and we have one of 2024’s top contenders for post-metal splendor. Graciously not exceeding the 36 minute mark by much, this album features 10 strong tracks that add a bit of variation to this sonic smorgasbord, a feat that many a blackgaze act fails to achieve. With as much attention paid to the clean mellower post-rock aspects of the album, the juxtaposition of the aggressive blackened metal parts is outstanding.

The five band members cover a lot in the instrument department with piano, cello, mandolin, orchestrations and an entire string section accompanying the blistering guitar riffs, bantering bass grooves and percussive drive which all can equal pacify the soul as easily as they can pummel the senses into oblivion. The opening “Another Cycle” ushers in a catchy clean guitar strumming session before quickly lambasting your senses with tremolo guitar workouts with the drum and bass. Right from the start the atmosphere is rich and creamy like a sweet latte emerging from a stale can of Folgers. The band has mastered the knack of contrast and benefits from the moments when the metal drops altogether with everything strung together with a catchy tritone melody.

The beauty of OBSIDIAN WREATH is that the band can really shift gears from lushly backed atmospheric blackgaze to a more grimy raging sludge metal and then off to a scream-fueled rage-a-thon. The wrath emerging from Alexander Rudenshiold is obnoxiously addictive with a never-ending screaming session that is the one variable that rarely deviates from its high intensity. The exception is the surprising clean vocal section at the beginning of the ending track “Vestygian.” The tracks all transition surprisingly well with atmospheric outros merging seamlessly with the next track’s intro. The second track “Fulfilled” is somewhat of an atmospheric appetizer and reminds me a lot of some of the drone metal atmospheric bleakness of Sunn O))).

This is a really great album with great effort into perfecting the minutia and it all pays off with an album that sounds captivating for its entirety. Blackgaze is not a subgenre that i find appealing mostly for its one-dimensional propensity of crafting tracks that rarely deviate from a given recipe but INFANT ISLAND has succeeded in spicing the entire shebang up manyfold with a diverse palette of tones, timbres and tempos without sacrificing the extreme metal bombast that is never too distant from any given intermission. A remarkable display of balancing the smoothness of melodic atmospheres with dissonant aggressive bombast. This is a winning combo for my ears and a nice little surprise so early on in 2024.