Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
What we perceive as forever is hindered in part by our own mortality.
To be found Absorbing Infinity would be a lesson on how to live beyond your time, and the only true way in which to conquer Time is to produce something so passionate that it stands out on its own, something unexpectedly human, rich, vibrant, uniquely cool, and full of a life that transcends the name.
It is not quite the immortal, but the spark of life itself, that sees this phenomenon occur, the willingness to feel the universe, its weaved magic and sense of limitlessness that we can only imagine but never quite grasp, and to which every artist at one time surely must accept they have been touched by.
This is the drive, the urge to create that infinity is pushing us to absorb, to recognise when the universe places the seed of an idea in our minds, and to which Slanderus have understood perfectly and with anticipation as their brand-new studio album is released upon a world not knowing just what they are about to receive.
Fuelled by the inspiration offered by the likes of the titans of their genre, the boundless spirit to be reckoned with by Iron Maiden, the indomitable Queensryche, or the progressive power of Dream Theater, Slanderus’ Jason J. Kennedy, Allen Alamillo, JJ Gawrich, and Bryan Porter, have touched upon the raw nerve of vision, they have looked into the soul of infinity and gained insight into innovation and ingenuity.
The brilliance of their creation is such that hasn’t just had life poured into it from an external force as Doctor Frankenstein pushed levers and pushed knobs in the hope that electricity could be harnessed to bring life to what had perished, they have weaved tales with extraordinary wit and guile, and as tracks such as the opener, Tectonic Plates, Cobra Kai, Find Your Lifeline, the superb Omen, A Small Sacrifice, and Absolution find their way into the world, so too does the listener find their belief of what is everlasting is expanded.
Absorbing Infinity, like all great albums in the genre, think Operation: Mindcrime, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory, is punchy, it makes you think the impossible, it grinds the gears of the mind to full working productivity, and it is essentially impossible not to like.
We cannot live forever, infinity is too large a construct to fully comprehend, but, if we listen to the universe rather than our own ego, the drive to create a moment that will outlive our mortal souls will be captured, the essence of infinity will be welcomed beyond our days.
Ian D. Hall