Metal Storm logo
Fifth To Infinity - Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire review




Bandcamp music player
Reviewer:
9.5

24 users:
7.88
Band: Fifth To Infinity
Album: Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire
Release date: January 2016


01. Intro - Vindar Från De Osaligas Ängder
02. Reapers Wake
03. Masters Unbound
04. The Fall Of The Seven
05. The Will To Harm
06. Death Shall Wake Us All
07. Secrets Of The Bottom
08. The Promise Of Abyss
09. The Blessings Of Annihilation

There are certain bands that put out an album maybe once in their lifetime, but become favorites for your life. Those albums are condensed, sincere, and hard-fought. They hit the mark perfectly, "as if they were written for me". Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire is one of them.

Created by Nader Jonas Reslan and Martin Lopez (mostly known for Opeth) 20 years ago, this project was on hiatus between 2001 and 2007, and has brought its first complete album only in 2016. The initial material was more technical and thrashy, never seeing the light of day. All tracks featured on the album were written between 2007 and 2011. This band is a case of not wanting to know that actual people stand behind this and how they created material at hand. Why? Because it destroys the magic. When you listen to Fifth To Infinity, you don't want to know that people actually sat in the studio after 20 years of bearing this material in their livers, and pulled the strings, and bashed the drums, and yelled at the microphones, and mastered the audio, and, and... You just want to get lost in the sonic stream.

Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire is about "moodtelling" as books are about storytelling. It is gloomy, cosmic and scared of itself in a Lovecraftian way. Vague song structures with chunky riffs, jazzy passages intertwine and weave patterns of constellations on a celestial canvas with ambient atmosphere of wind and crows. Cryptic and mysterious bass flops while the guitar's tremolo lines crawl in the background, only to collapse into a dissonant gallop.

Nader defined his own material as "transcendental metal of death" which is again a characteristic describing the emotional and spiritual nature of the material. On the conventional genre side of things, the closest description would be blackened death progressive metal, taking its time in slow-mid pace, occasionally going into a moderate blastbeat, but never rushing. The closest relatives are Ved Buens Ende's Written in Waters, with the same tendency to slip away from your memory after it finishes, yet relapsing here and there throughout the day with vanishing fragments and melodies, and Embodiment by Sculptured with its existential and reflective nature.

"To reach true enlightenment and transcendence, one has to die to enable a second birth. When we rid ourselves from the ideas and notions of the ego, identity, etc., we enable ourselves to perceive our true state of being, eternal and limitless. This path is the main drive behind our work and a constant expression in our music. Through death we transcend." - Nader Jonas Reslan, interview

Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire takes its honorable place in a pantheon next to Written in Waters and Embodiment.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 10
Production: 8

Written by doozza | 09.05.2017




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 44 users
12.05.2017 - 11:34
KutAd

Sounds like something I should check out...
Loading...
13.05.2017 - 11:13
Rating: 10
doozza

Written by KutAd on 12.05.2017 at 11:34

Sounds like something I should check out...

This album is really very hard to describe in words or put a finger on it. It has something very personal and magical. If you like either Embodiment or Written in Waters, you should definitely check it out.
I understand my review is basically a love letter, but when such a deep and emotional album meets my peculiar tastes in grim and dissonant, I can't help but share it with everyone =)
If this review made a few people check it out, I'm more than happy!
Loading...

Hits total: 4593 | This month: 10