Infinite Recollection

At this point, it might not seem like I’m all that keen on Witheria as I’ve always found something to bitch about and then ultimately write off their albums as decent at best – except the debut, which is a good one despite its imperfections. But honestly, if they didn’t have something about the first three albums to cling onto and build some kind of expectation off of – like the debut’s frenzy of riffs or the first few tracks off Vanishing Order – then they’d just be a wholly unremarkable C-grade thrash band. Stocking filler, basically. Which is a shame, because they do seem like a band that set their sights higher than the likes of Lich King, but only seem to have enough energy and inspiration for about half an album. Thankfully, their longer songs are a part of the good halves of their albums, showing that they can produce some captivating joints when they pull their heads in. There’s clear talent, you know?

Well, I have to say, if you want a good Witheria album with no major caveats, then Infinite Recollection is a pretty safe bet. Although where it does start getting more interesting is the tag-team of “Interstellar Lessons Received in a Dream” and “Infinite Velocity”, where their melodic chops truly take form. The former’s chock full of leads and solos while various downtrodden riffs keep up the crawling chaos; meanwhile, the latter pushes and pulls between full-on thrash and groovy breaks with overly melodic leads. There’s just this sense of grandeur across these tracks, especially “Interstellar Lessons Received in a Dream” where its acoustic guitar bit builds up to leads and riffs galore, which themselves build up to more intense riffs and a flashy solo. It winds up creating a narrative structure of sorts where everything sort of builds off one another to get this flowing melody going, smoothly going from set piece to set piece.

This all continues into “Ultimate Extinction of the Form” and “Within the Multitude of Slave Brains”, which lay out all these grooves, leads, solos, harmonics and all that… with some thrash riffs here and there. Basically, leaning more into their melodic side. The various riffs and rhythms bob and weave to create these dynamic compositions that wrap back around to a melody that keeps itself interesting enough for the totality of their runtime. Honestly, the only real drama with this album is that its epic finale does drag its feet, as its grooves and leads do become more trite and pedestrian as the song goes on – which is definitely disappointing for these guys, since the epic is usually what you’re looking forward to as they do show the band’s true strengths. Here, it’s more like the various six or seven minute songs are doing all the heavy lifting, which is fine because that’s most of the album, but to have a finale that starts off as an enjoyable romp full of staggered thrashing and blast beats – complemented by some delicious leads and solos – only for it to indulge in more standard, ordinary and fairly tepid fare is a damn shame.

That aside, it’s hard to really take issue with Infinite Recollection. It’s just mostly tightly composed thrash with some real melodic sensibilities. I wouldn’t say that any of the songs here are modern thrash classics, though they have the right ideas to come close to the mark. It’s like the riffs don’t thrash hard enough, nor do the breaks, leads, etc help to make something truly memorable, and the hooks aren’t quite sharp enough to truly grab your attention. But there’s enough to sink your teeth into if you find yourself listening to this, nonetheless.