This is the third album from this Gothenburg outfit, and guitarist/founder Stefan Lindholm has moved on from the contemporary neoclassical metal sound with which the band made their name. He explains it by saying “I’m no longer the same person as I used to be, so now I am going for a simpler approach and it’s more in your face. ‘Cage of Infinity’ definitely contains a lot of immediate hooks and choruses. At the same time, I think it just may be more metallic than previously. Possibly a tad Judas Priest-ish, but I'll leave that for the listener to decide!!!”.
Keyboard player Pontus Larsson and bassist Nalle Påhlsson (Therion, Treat, Zan Clan, Last Autumn's Dream) are still here, but there is a new drummer in Henrik Hedman and a new singer in Marco Sandron who has replaced Göran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen, Glory,Kharma, Xsavior). Marco was previously with power metal outfit Eden’s Curse, and he has fitted into the new sound of this band with ease. Strong, and always melodic, there is a powerful bottom end with this album and it is Stefan who drives this band forward. There are some incredible shreds here, and having not heard the earlier albums I found myself wondering just what they are like. The reason for that is while this is a very powerful album, and well worth discovering on many levels, there is always the nagging feeling that actually Stefan is capable of much more than this. Comparable in many ways to Dragonforce, it his solos that really lift this album.
Only time will tell if this is the permanent direction of the band or if he moves in another direction, but for this now this is definitely worthy of investigation while not being indispensible. For more details visit the label site as www.escape-music.com.
