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Album Review

The Black Queen – “Infinite Games” [Album Review]

“Insidious” is a perfect descriptor for this follow-up to 2016’s Fever Daydream. “Sublime,” “majestic,” and “addictive,” are a few more adjectives I’d attach to Infinite Games, an album that slowly boils into an audio experience unlike anything else on the planet.

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There’s a quote out there somewhere that has The Black Queen vocalist Greg Puciato describing Infinite Games as “insidious”. His context is that the new album reveals itself over its 46-minute running span, and then over multiple listens.

“Insidious” is a perfect descriptor for this follow up to 2016’s Fever Daydream. “Sublime,” “majestic,” and “addictive,” are a few more adjectives I’d attach to Infinite Games, an album that slowly boils into an audio experience unlike anything else on the planet, except maybe its predecessor. But even a comparison to Fever Daydream seems inaccurate. Infinite Games is a darker, yet more confident effort from Puciato and his bandmates Josh Eustis (Telefon Tel Aviv) and Steven Alexander Ryan (programming for NIN/APC).

With Infinite Games comes the newly formed Federal Prisoner label, an outlet created for projects that emerge from The Black Queen’s creative endeavors as well as a home for upcoming collaborations with other artists. Fever Daydream was self-released in 2016 with all singles and the full album being sold over the internet directly to fans. The packaging and production for mail-orders were all put together and handled by the band themselves, and each member has described the direct contact with their fans for The Black Queen’s physical media as a very rewarding component to this project.

Similarly, Infinite Games pre-order vinyl and cassettes have already sold out, and a re-pressing of Infinite Games in some form will surely be announced in the coming weeks. There is a component to The Black Queen that feels like being a part of an elite group with the band members, all of whom seem to have embraced this band as a creative outlet they would pursue regardless of commercial success. The band is circumventing the traditional model for a standard label’s marketing rollout and going at things in their own fashion with limited physical pressings of their product sold directly to fans online.

Infinite Games itself is a moody and satisfying journey into the depths of ten musical movements that touch on the styles of darkwave, goth, ambient and industrial releases spanning the past 35 years. Puciato’s vocals are a 180-degree departure from his Dillinger Escape Plan work. On Infinite Games, he drones and croons his way through the musical tapestries created with his two collaborators to impressive results. Listening to the Dillinger Escape Plan was always an intense experience, yet I’d describe The Black Queen as an intense listening experience as well. Songs like “No Accusations,” “100 to Zero” and album closer “One Edge of Two” are all excellent showpieces of the musical span and emotional depths Infinite Games has to offer. And of course, “Thrown into the Dark,” the first single released from the album is impressive.

Infinite Games will be available in all formats and on all music sites for purchase and streaming by Friday, September 28th. Lossless high quality downloads will be available right here.

Check out a stream of the blistering new track “Thrown Into The Dark” here.


Infinite Games Track Listing:

01. Even Still I Want To

02. Thrown Into the Dark
03. No Accusations

04. Your Move
05. Lies About You
06. Impossible Condition

07. Spatial Boundaries
08. 100 to Zero

09. Porcelain Veins
10. One Edge of Two

Run Time: 46:14
Release Date: September 28, 2018
Record Label: Federal Prisoner

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