Interview - Lords of Metal
|
|
(Frank V., 01.09.2010) The German outfit Infinight really surprised me with their latest album ‘Like Puppets’. It surely has been a long time since I heard an album that incorporated so many different influences in a perfect balance. After some research it seems the band only released two albums in almost ten years time. So it is for sure time to introduce this Infinight to a wider audience. Martin, Marco, Dominique, Kai and Hendrik together answered the questions I threw at them. First off: probably a lot of metal fans are not aware of the fact that your band exists, so would you be so kind to introduce yourselves and tell us a bit of your history? Well, InfiNight was founded in 2001, so we have already been doing this for a while. We consider ourselves a power-thrash metal band, which means that most of our music is rooted in modern American power metal such as Nevermore or Iced Earth, with the occasional eighties thrash metal riff thrown in for good measure. We always try to find and keep our own style, although we're in no way avert to sounding modern. I'm not going to try and explain what our songs sound like, I think that's something reviewers are better at - or you can just listen for yourself. The past years have been a roller coaster of experiences for us. After playing the usual clubs and smaller venues we've had some huge, fantastic gigs with bands such as Children of Bodom, Nocturnal Rites, Powerwolf and of course our gig at the Wacken Open Air in 2006 - so I guess we're pretty successful getting and playing good gigs. What we are still less successful at is convincing labels that they should support us. So, in spite of many excellent reviews and great gigs, we're still without a record deal. We do have many loyal fans though and even our own fan club, which is still kind of outstanding in our region. I recently reviewed your latest album ‘Like Puppets’, your second one if I am correct. Now InfiNight already exists for quit some time already, but this album is the only your second one. Why took it such a long time to release it? Well, it already took us four years to release our first album ´Sea Of Knowledge´, so why should the second one have come out quicker? The main reason was that in 2006 we took part in the Wacken Metal Battle, which ultimately led to us playing a gig at the Wacken Open Air. So there were a lot of things to organize, we had to rehearse a lot, and after Wacken was over, we got a lot of requests for gigs, so that was what we focused on in the following two years. Then there were personal reasons, and also the fact that, sadly, we are far from being able to live from InfiNight, so we could not focus on the band entirely - the list goes on like that. Of course we'd been writing songs all along, but it wasn't until the end of 2008 that we really started working on new material. And we did not want to rush things. Our songs simply need some time to grow, to put it that way. And then came the studio problems - I don't want to go into detail here, but what was planned as a four week production took more than eight months in the end. And I don't think that we were to blame for that. Let's just say we were a bit unlucky in the choice of our producer... Most surprising for me was the diversity of the album, you guys seem to have many influences. Personally while listening to the album names like Iced Earth, Nevermore, Psychotic Waltz, Queensryche and Sentenced leaped to mind. Can you explain this more detailed? The simplest answer is surely that we are five very different persons who try to find, out of their many different tastes and influences, the parts that best express what we are trying to say with a certain song. That's another reason why writing songs takes some time when you are in InfiNight. I can tell you, bringing the ideas in those five heads together into one coherent album or even a single song is quite a challenge. But I guess the bands you mentioned are those that we can all agree on, so it's kind of natural that some elements reminiscent of those bands show up in our songs. I expected a local band with their latest demo once I received it, but instead I encountered an excellent album which absolutely deserves more then just being local phenomenon. So I wonder, what has been the general response to this new ‘Like Puppets’ album? The overall response has been extremely positive so far, with many reviews comparing the album to the likes of Nevermore, Queensrÿche, Iced Earth and such - which to us is a great compliment. Most satisfying though was that many reviews not only mentioned a huge leap in songwriting compared to the first album "Sea of knowledge", but also said that we've really found our own musical style. It's always great to hear that people recognize what you were trying to achieve - that is, not to be one in a million, but unique enough to be at least one in a hundred, somewhat special, bands. What is still lacking though is a call or at least some feedback from a label. We've sent both of our albums out to several independent and even major labels, again, but so far none of them has showed interest - despite the excellent reviews. Looks like we may need a little more luck there... Lords of Metal Your singer reminds me of Buddy Lackey from Psychotic Waltz from the excellent ‘Mosquito’ album in some of the songs. Does this sound logical to you guys, or does this comparison comes as a complete surprise? I got to admit, I don't know really much of their material, so it's kind of surprising to me. But thanks anyway for the comparison, they're an excellent band with a great singer after all. Personally, I'd rather name Warrel Dane of Nevermore or even more so Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation as my main influences - though, right now, I'm not trying to sound like anybody else, but I feel that I am finding my own style. It is a pity that I do not know your first record ‘Sea Of Knowledge’, but can you tell me what the major differences are between that and the new album? ´Sea Of Knowledge´ was an experiment - we had just formed a new band, we didn't really know each other, and we certainly didn't have a clear vision of what our music was supposed to be like. So we simply tried to put everything we liked into the songs, which made them very diverse and interesting, but sometimes they lack a bit in structure or simply "professional" songwriting. The production was very lean, too, we basically recorded everything the way it sounded live. Now, with ´Like Puppets´, I think we've more or less found our own style, the songs are in a way more complex, but also more comprehensive - you can get into some of the songs way easier, others are even more diverse. The production was also very different this time. We used many more of the possibilities of a professional studio, we recorded additional tracks, we added samples, we had a friend, Hellowed-singer Olli, record some keyboards for some of the songs - we wanted the production to reflect the development in songwriting, and we wanted to really make our vision of what the songs should sound like come true. And I guess that's the main difference - the new album sounds a lot more mature, less experimental, and more like a production done in a professional studio. But in spite of it sounding like a modern production, I think we still managed to make our own sound recognizable. ´Like Puppets´ is certainly not running after any trends, and it's even more certainly not mainstream metal, but simply our very own creations, our own style. I can already let you know that the review of ‘Like Puppets’ (to be published in our September 2010 edition) will be quite positive. I hope the band will keep growing to raise your status in the metal scene. For me it is clear you deserve it. So how can our readers get a hold of the latest album and the previous one? That's actually pretty simple - the complete first album can be downloaded for free on our website, www.infinight.de, or you can visit us on MySpace, Facebook - we're basically everywhere. And for those who want more than just the songs, there is a shop on the site where you can order both albums on cd, with a great booklet, and also some merchandise. But of course the easiest way is to go to one of our concerts. There you can get everything from the band - everything ;-). And just in case a booking agency or even a label representative reads this - why don't you drop us a mail via contact@infinight.de. Any change we can see InfiNight live on stage soon? We've got some concerts planned towards the end of the year. All our gigs, those still to come and everything we've ever played can also be found on our website, so all you gotta do is keep checking the site to be up to date with our gigs. Currently we are working on an unplugged set that is to be played live some time around Christmas - and we are also going to record it, so you definitely won't have to wait another five years for a new album. And of course, we are open to any suggestions or requests for gigs. Is there anything else that you want to tell our readers about, or any thoughts. Please go ahead, the space below is yours…. First of all we would like to thank our fans, especially our fan club "Rockende erste Reihe" - there's a link on our website where you can visit their site and drop them a message. Secondly, this goes to everybody who reads this, why you don't come visit our site, leave a message, download the songs, and yes, we would like you to copy them and show them to all of your friends - and if you like the songs, buy a cd or some merchandise, we can really use the money ;-) And it would be even better if you came to one of our concerts – We promise you'll neither regret nor forget it. Well - I think this is everything we'd like to say right now... so thank you for the interview! Writer: Frank V. Date: 01.09.2010 URL: http://lordsofmetal.nl/showinterview.php?id=3428&lang=en |
 See all reviews... |
||
