With the newest release from Infant Island, the presence of anger can be used to find community and fight for a world that’s knee-deep in its suffering. ‘Obsidian Wreath’ is a bounce back for the band as they cut away disheveled flaws and delve deeper into creating crumbling melodies, intersecting screamo with blends of heavy sonic elements that allow the dynamic wrath to sound more intense and determined.
When the cycling process of societal collapse continues to dissolve the world at large, Infant Island takes all of that miasma and absorbs it to let their rage of the world be heard. Starting off in 2018, the band rolls over into Screamo and Post-Hardcore foundations and smears with some luminous guitar passages that hark back into Post-Rock sonics, leading toward an intriguing self-titled project but slips off a bit when they released their sophomore album ‘Beneath’ as the buzzing production and thematic switch-ups don’t allow their strengths to shine through. 4 years since then, Infant Island unleashes something punishingly hopeful with ‘Obsidian Wreath’.
Looking around the album’s sonic palette, Infant Island continues to trek through their Screamo roots that are now spiraling into other sonic tangents that allow the compositions to blaze through, with firmer handles on Blackgaze, Metalcore, and Post-Rock elements piecing the melodies together into the band’s lengthiest album to date, running over 36 minutes that makes use of its time effectively where the structure paired with the refinement on compositions, writing, and production that makes a lot of the songs to burst aflame. The churning metalcore melodies that are amplified with sonorous guitar feedbacks on ‘Another Cycle’ and ‘Clawing, Still’, the gleaming post-rock section of ‘With Shadow’ that envelops its sweeping passages into the shackling screams, the crushing, determined buildups of ‘Veil’ that carries the layered howls to shriek to the skies above, the moody pianos and strings of ‘Amaranthine’ that eventually transitions to the stomping tune across the percussions and guitars, the ghostly refrains of ‘Kindling’ courtesy of Greet Death’s guiding singing before it tears apart into the ravaging screams, and ‘Vestygian’ takes its 6-minute runtime full of careening heavy whirlwinds, taking a bit of time for the vocals to be shrouded in rage, then pulling back for those emotive guitar passages just before it returns that scorched voice to give its one final ravenous scream before flickering away into the distance. There are aspects where the album can lose its edge, some of it comes to cuts where the melody and soundscape come off a bit dull - ‘Found Hand’ especially with the shambling hollowness of its atmosphere - yet the bigger issue is more on the mixing, burying the vocals behind the back of the bolting ray of melodies might make sense with what the writing goes into, but, it can pull away some of the edges that the screams consistently carry.
Like the overall tone and sound, the narrative does carry the same rage into the picture, wherein within that context of the crushed state of societies and environments, the band takes that visceral anger to break down the roots of that impenetrable damnation. Yet, the lyricism on display shows an emphasis on the word “us”, signifying a sense of connecting with communities where the expression of anger becomes a way to be a part of a collective that has to stick with one another and let their voices heard to make the desire to keep on fighting be uplifted. It’s an optimistic framing that nevertheless is needed when the world is in complete shambles, allowing the viscerally tangible despairing edge to become a strength in itself, kindling a spirit in the protagonist and everybody else around them that will last for ages despite the chaos that crumbles the entire world apart.
Despite the album recording finished back in 2021, given the context of the immense pileup of anger-inducing societal shifts that broke everybody on board, the tangible fury gets even more bitingly relevant in these current times, with a message that reflects what has happened in these tumultuous environments where the presence of optimism will be the driving force for everybody to fight with another. With all of its improvements and experimentation displayed on ‘Obsidian Wreath’, Infant Island pummels through and delivers their most striking record to date as the compositions weave magnetic melodic passages across screamo, post-rock, and metalcore, poetry that’s both scathing and hopeful, and production that lets the instrumentation and melodies unfurl in potent fashion. The scorching flame might be overwhelming, yet it can be used to spark everyone’s spirits and let their voices connect and fight for the world that’s deserving of a less blight future.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Another Cycle’, ‘Clawing, Still’, ‘Veil’, ‘Amaranthine’, ‘With Shadow’, ‘Kindling’, ‘Vestygian’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Found Hand’