"Powerful female-fronted melodic metal" is Of Infinity's tag line. It's perfect indeed, as there's no usual "beauty and beast" play in vocals. You know; beautiful female vocals and grunted male ones?! But what kind of metal is the band's trade?

I'd say this is gothic heavy metal with a wide range of influences. 'The Voice Without' explodes out of speakers, thanks to very heavy riffing, double bass drumming and vibrating bass. Gothic tinkling synths, piano and fantastic guitar melodies build melancholic atmosphere. Acoustic middle part gives a short breather in this song nicknamed as "The Wall O' Sound". Generally, I'm not too much into these "gothic tinklings", but 'The Voice...' is a strong opener for sure. 'Shadow of a Lie' starts with acoustic guitar and violin, but doesn't sound anything like My Dying Bride. Again, song is heavy when it explodes into action, being melancholic yet energetic. Later on, acoustics and electric instrumentation is mixed nicely. Again a strong, catchy song. 'It's Only for Forever' is an absolute killer, even though it's not brutal at all! Piano, acoustic and bluesy electric guitars are fantastically mixed. In this song about wars, the band's charisma is in full use and the song is the most intimate of the three. This makes you sway for sure. 'It's Only...' is powerful and catchy as hell.

At first, Of Infinity sounded like they had no own ideas. Soon, the band's uniqueness started to show. While these three songs offer nothing new musically, the mixture of influences and ideas is still unique. One can spot familiar elements here and there, but they are hard to be places into any specific place. As you have noticed, I haven't mentioned any band names but MDB, and that one wasn't to give any directions about Of Infinity really. The catchiness of the music is incredible, but not pussy at all. Every musician would kill for this kind of magic.

Performance is flawless. Still, it's Alessandra Zinicoli's powerful voice, that gets the most of attention. Her voice is beautiful, powerful and charismatic. Another fine female vocalist, that will melt any man's heart. Guitars are nicely heavy and raw at times and rhythm section has weight. Production is clear but strong, practically flawless. Cover art could be better, but it doesn't make the music any worse.

This is a fantastic piece of music, if a tad short. At least there is no filler material here. If record labels don't sign Of Infinity, they are stupid to miss this charismatic band. Fans of female vocals in metal music should not miss this one, either. 'The Essence of Infinity' actually sounds timeless in terms of metal music.

Reviewed by Lane
12/01/2004 14:50