Infinity Shred’s new album Forever, A Fast Life launched August 23rd, 2019 on 3DOT Recordings. Having no prior experience with the band, Infinity Shred lives up to what that name should mean; for me, that was sustained guitar chords, but they offer so much more than that. Infinity Shred is comprised of three members: Clara Warnaar, Damon Hardjowirogo, and Nathan Ritholz. I could not tell you which one is deemed the singer (I would like to think they have decided who among them the singer of the band is) since there isn’t one; the album is completely instrumental with no voice samples. The synth and guitar leads carry the listener along and guide them through each song.
The introductory track, Brutal Luxury, provides a lovely string heavy orchestra intro. This builds to the synths/drums/guitars all striking with the original strings in tow. It is only a 3 minute plus song, but definitively sets the tone for the entire track list. It does not deviate drastically, so you are not checking off genre sounds in each track. The album is a fusion of heavy, grunge-like guitars combined with modern synth and chiptunes in addition to an underlying base of soft strings.
It’s difficult to pick a favorite or stand out on this album. Each song flows into the other like one consistent performance, though it is still complete with breaks and in no way one continuous song. The hook on the album is What’s Worth Hiding. I never knew I would hear a song I want Ken Andrews (Failure; ON; Year of the Rabbit) to guest vocal on out of nowhere so much. It channels so much of a grand scale epic 90’s rock feel, at the same time with the synth sounds of today.
“We always hear the world has a hard time paying attention to longform content,” says Clara. “However, there’s still room for something amazing to happen in that medium. We put a lot of work into our album as a whole experience. We want you to feel like it’s worth it to take the journey with us.” There is care put in to create that journey that is special to this release “We wanted it to be recognizable as an Infinity Shred record, but not like anything we’ve done previously,” says Damon. “This is the first time where everybody in the band contributed to a large amount of the actual songwriting process. It was exciting to see the difference in material it sparked.”
Inspiration can come from anywhere, but it’s fun when it comes from a running phrase with friends, “On my birthday last year, my dad wrote on Facebook, ‘Happy Birthday Damon, Long May You Run,’ and it’s something he had never said to me before in my life,” laughs Damon. “I don’t know where the phrase came from, but we got attached to it. It’s the most energetic and lighthearted song. On the album, you start in a place of naïveté and end up going somewhere darker. We like the contrast of different songs against each other.”
This album is perfect to put on when playing a video game with little to no dialog that you need to pay attention to, and has served me well on longer car rides. Infinity Shred’s Forever, A Fast Life adds a sound score to your life and it works beautifully. It is well worth a listen and so many more.
10 out of 10
Pros
- Full of Life
- Perfect Length
- Good for Any Time
Cons
- To my Knowledge, Not in the Dark Crystal Netflix Series
Forever, A Fast Life was created by Infinity Shred under the 3DOT Recordings label. It launched on August 23rd, 2019. The album was provided to us for review. If you’d like to see more of Infinity Shred, check out the band’s official site.
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