Torrefy are a Canadian thrash metal band and this is their second album.
Containing over an hour of material, The Infinity Complex is an ambitious and epic release full of progressive thrash metal. The music borrows from the old-school while still retaining enough modern flavour to appeal to a wide variety of metal fans.
Imagine Skeletonwitch mixed with a variety of progressively-minded sci-fi themes, older thrash metal and a bit of a black metal intensity here and there.
The latter aspect mainly shines through in the band’s aggressive singer, lending the album a sharper, more cutting aspect than if the vocals were more of the classic thrash metal variety.
Some of the playing on this release is very impressive. It’s an album built around riffs, but one that uses them to paint a bigger picture, rather than simply stringing them together with only a vision for the immediate section. Consequently, the songs flow and spread evenly over each other, with the easy overall direction given by a band that clearly know what they want to achieve with their music.
Although it has its catchy, direct moments, this is definitely an album to sit with and let grow over you like a thorny rosebush. It certainly does have its instant charms, but most of its appeal comes from the way the songs slowly unfold with their secrets protected by barbs and spikes. The more you listen to the songs the greater they grow on you, as the riffs, leads and solos coalesce in your mind.
The Infinity Complex is an impressive, ambitious and well-realised release. Although it’s not without its shortcomings, these are overcome by its many strengths. This is definitely an album I’ll continue to explore in-depth over the next few years.
Make sure you spend some time with this one.
Wonderbox Metal 