Infringement are a Norwegian band formed in 2015 by Stig Andre Clason (guitarist for The Windmill, who I am also reviewing today), Kristoffer Utby, and Hans Andreas Brandal.
Their debut album was released in 2017 and 2024 sees the release of their third work, Black Science and White Lies.
There is a great concept in this album. It follows a man's journey through faith, identity, and redemption. Raised under strict religious doctrines in a society that believes in divine salvation, he becomes disillusioned and abandons his faith. Having fled, he embraces a new ideology and joins a seemingly utopian society. However, his growing doubts drive him to escape and face the world's harsh realities. Returning to his estranged father, he reflects on his mistakes and seeks redemption, ultimately longing to reconcile with the beliefs he once rejected. We therefore have themes of spiritual conflict, personal transformation, and the quest for atonement.
The band members are Hans Andreas Brandal the lead vocalist; Stig André Clason on guitars and vocal; Kristoffer Utby drums and vocal; Bård Thorstensen on keyboards and vocal; with Emil Olsen playing bass, baritone and more vocals.
There are only two tracks but packing in 43 minutes of music. It is ambitious, sweeping, and rather good. What we have here is essentially a rock opera. I know that these aren’t to everybody’s tastes, but the form has enjoyed something of a revival in recent times, and I think in a positive way.
Side one is White Lies, which deals with the journey from doctrine to heresy via apostasy (words still in use to violent effect in extreme religious parts of the world today). The Floydian voice opening and pushing the doctrine has impact against a pretty piano and a rumbling bass. Brandal has a powerful voice and the band when they enter provide for some pleasing riffs. The close of Devolution is cracking, extraordinarily heavy riffs before the heresy is realised with some disturbing vocal chants prior to the main theme reasserting itself.
Side two deals with the rejection of the new and the redemption of the old, a spiritual journey gone full circle. I think the second part, Conjugation, is a magnificent piece, full of complexity and thoughtful meditation on the mental state of our hero, especially asking “Mother” what he has done in leaving her. The extended instrumental passages are dramatic, reminding one in parts of Arena’s work.
They can play, and, as with all epics this long, there are many twists and turns of mood, power, tone, all of which is achieved with aplomb. The soundscapes created add texture to the varying stages of the journey, and it is a genuine rock album, Clason providing for some classy solo work, Olsen giving a delicious lesson in bass melodies, and the Hammond Organ work by Thorstensen especially strong.
For those of you who might be put off by the thought of yet another rock opera/story, I would strongly recommend you take yourselves over to their Bandcamp page at Music | Infringement to listen alongside the brief selection I have embedded below. The album is especially recommended for those of you who like Deep Purple, that venerable band surely having a strong influence upon much of what I hear, and those who enjoy the type of classical dramatic progressive rock which, for example, Arena do so well.
