Infinika – Echoes and Traces (Album Review)

Infinika’s debut album Echoes and Traces is the new release from former Anyone front man Riz Story and Korn ex-drummer David Silveria.  Written, recorded, and produced by Story in his home studio along with Silveria, this concept album is a wild and unabashed departure from either member’s former bands.  Echoes and Traces embraces a limitless palate of sounds and creative direction, rather than a pigeon-holed, re-imagining of each other’s respective musical past. The album gives a nod to the bigger, arena-like rock sound of legendary bands such as U2, and more contemporary artists like Muse and Placebo.

From the very first track “Sensitive”, Infinika set the tone for the album. Silveria’s drum kit sounds simply massive, combined with some real over-the-top fuzz distortion and swirling synths.  This really gives the audience a preview of the trip this band is about to take them on, and it is a trip alright. The music is uplifting at times – heavy with keyboards, great use of space and delays, and songs in both major and minor keys that vary in tempo, emotion, and feeling. “Beautiful World” switches gears into a heavy-grooved drum passage with some of the biggest-sounding fuzzed-out guitars ever heard on record.  Story channels Placebo vocalist Brian Molko on “Fly Away” as a clean guitar peppers a melody accented by a tight rhythm section of bass and drums eventually giving way to a huge chorus before the song crescendos and reverts to only glittery guitars and Story’s delayed vocal track.

Breaking pace with an acoustic track “Over Before It Begins” (and then again on ‘Over Before It Begins Part 2’ as track 12), the band proves they are not restricted to only heavy rock riffs and highlight some of Story’s less edgy material. “Yesterday’s Gone” shows off their most dynamic collaboration on the record, swinging the feel from a even-keeled and mid-tempo verse and chorus to an abrupt tom-tom groove in the bridge before blasting out the up-tempo chorus bringing back the big dirty guitar distortion.  “Runaways” is, stylistically, a very obvious ode to U2 in both vocal delivery and guitars, featuring more shimmering delays.

Changing the pace of the album again, “Crash” is the heaviest track of the bunch, and coupled with “Down” (track 11) sounds like Helmet on steroids – Page Hamilton would be proud of these two.  Winding down the end of the listeners audio journey is “Echoes” (which includes dialogue from Riz Story’s 2014 directorial debut A Winter Rose) and “Traces”.  Both title tracks share some very Pink Floyd-ish similarities – long musical sections that border between a beautiful melancholy and organized chaos that finally resolves to the sound of a windy landscape and a distantly fading ticking clock.

Despite being produced by only the two members, Echoes and Traces is a cohesive, if not at times slightly self-indulgent album.  Not having an outside entity in the production chair to occasionally pull in the reigns seems to have proven a very gratifying experience for both members, and that influence is evident throughout this fourteen song aural odyssey. At times however, the mixes sometimes tend to favor some instruments over others, resulting in unwanted masking or inaudible parts. Casual listeners will not be bothered by this, and do not let that deter from the songs themselves.  This is no doubt a vocal showcase for Story and his impressive range.  Silveria holds his own here, playing some very solid grooves and writing some interesting parts that fans will not expect to hear. He plays it cool – his performance is not overly flashy, and he does not try to stuff as many fills into a 2 bar part.  Those in the mood for Rock but also in the mood for something different, pick up a copy of Infinika’s Echoes and Traces. CrypticRock gives this album 3.5 out of 5 stars.