Band:	Infinite Horizon
Album:	Soul Reducer
Style:	Progressive power metal
Release date:	October 2008

01. Children Of Tomorrow
02. Burning Bridges
03. The Thin Line
04. Facing Mr. Hyde
05. Tears Of Jerusalem
06. Under Bloodred Skies
07. Re-evolution
08. Into The Void
09. The Dark Side Of The Sun

After an EP and two full albums, Soul Reducer (released in October 2008) is the fourth output by the German quintet Infinite Horizon. The band plays progressive metal with a very strong heavy metal side to it. The critical lyrics are mainly about society but also about religion and mass media.

The one trademark that sets this band apart from many other progressive formations is probably the vocal work. Most of the time Marc Lemler sings with a pretty 'raw' voice, on "The Dark Side Of The Sun" for example, probably my favorite track on the CD, he sounds like a spitting image of Metallica's James Hetfield. "Tears Of Jerusalem" on the other hand, vividly reminds me of Iced Earth (not just the vocals actually, the rest of the instrumentation too). On other songs like "The Thin Line" he proves that he can also sing clean.

Not only the vocals though, also the guitar work is pretty varied. On some songs we get crunchy heavy metal riffs, sometimes the band even enters thrashy terrain, while the guitars even seem to flirt with hard rock on other songs. To add more variety to the mix we also have the keyboard on this album. While keyboardist Bastian Fuchs usually only plays very simple melodies on his instrument, the keyboard often takes a very dominant role when it's used. On some of the songs he uses it as a piano, on others, like the first and last track of the album for example, he plays futuristic intros with his instrument.

All of this sounds pretty good so far, but unfortunately the songs don't manage to convince me. Most of them have some parts that manage to put a smile on my face, a great, crunchy riff here, a cool keyboard part there, some passages where the vocals sound really great and some good choruses. On the other side the band might have a lot of variation between the songs, but the songs themselves usually sound pretty much the same from start to finish. Probably every single one of them could just as well have been a full minute (sometimes even two) shorter! Usually they start out great but after a while, or on the second or third listen, they just get lame.

It's a shame really, because the good things in the band's music, and there's more than enough of it around, are all shouting out loud that they could have done better, that they could have made an album that hold my attention from start to finish, that knocks out one awesome riff after another, that follows each musical progression with a better one, but goddamnit, they didn't make that album. Instead they made Soul Reducer. And while I can't say that Soul Reducer is a bad album, it disappoints me because it makes a lot of awesome promises and then doesn't keep them.

Best track: "Dark Side Of The Sun"