Carcer City – “Infinite//Unknown” [Album Review]

If you’ve been lucky enough to spend any time in the company of Scouse progressive metalcore outfit Carcer City over the past few years, whether it be at a gig somewhere or on record, you’ll be able to testify how they’ve grown into quite the slick, classy affair and one that (and with no disrespect to their current home Stay Sick Recordings) should have been snapped up by one of the big boys before now. Well, if there is any justice in the world and, again, no disrespect to Stay Sick, then new offering Infinite // Unknown will catapult them onto the big stage before long.

On the otherhand if you haven’t crossed paths with the Scouse metallers before this record, sit back, open up your ears and prepare yourselves for a right treat. Getting the blend of tech metal bludgeonary a la Heart Of A Coward and latter-day Linkin Park cleanliness just spot on, Infinite//Unknown is the kind of album that has plenty going on should you have the inclination to dig into the underbelly of a sound that is made up primarily of that familar fat sounding tech-metal riffing. Opener “Infiltrator”, for example, starts with a soothing, brooding Linkin Park style intro before that familiar sounding, jarring tech-riffing kicks the album into life. Then there is the clean sounding start to “Black Mirror” which bubbles under until the Scouse band drop into some polished but nonetheless brutal sounding riffing. Following a similar pattern throughout the course of Infinite//Unknown, the mix of cleans, soothing melodies, crunching tech-metal riffing and big moshy breakdowns on tracks like “Drifter” see the Scousers walk a route that will be very familiar to fans of the genre.

Infinite//Unknown has been four years in the making during which the band have been through their fair amount of troubled times. To their credit, the Scouse band have come out of the other side armed with an album that, for those fans who’ve been waiting patiently, will not disappoint. Their debut promised so much back in 2012, things are back on track for the band so now, armed with the solid Infinite//Unknown, could 2017 be the year that we finally see this promising progressive tech-metal band finally step up to the level they deserve to be at.

Infinite//Unknown Track Listing:

01. Infiltrator
02. Perceptions
03. Black Mirror
04. Infinite_unknown
05. Wolf Without A Pack
06. Sovereign
07. Drifter
08. Covington
09. The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn
10. Nothing But The Rain
11. Truth pt I. (Nothing Is Real)
12. Truth pt II. (Everything Is Permitted)

Run Time:
Release Date: September 16, 2016

Check out the track “Sovereign”