Sweden’s Fifth To Infinity almost disappeared without leaving a mark. Formed in 1997, the band’s debut was set to be released in 2000, but due to different circumstances, it didn’t happen, and the band split in 2001. After reforming in 2007, Fifth To Infinity are finally seeing their hard work come to fruition in the form of Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire.
Fifth To Infinity’s form of blackened death is heavy on atmosphere, and focuses on the black metal side of the sub-genre. There aren’t many blast-beats to speak of, with most tracks sticking to a lurching, medium tempo, emphasizing the heaviness of the riffs. “Master Unbound” starts off with a particularly crunchy riff, which is accompanied by layered background guitar-work that gives the track a dark, haunting vibe. The vocals lie somewhere between black metal howls and death growls, similar to those of Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir, and match the harshness of the music extremely well. “Death Shall Wake Us All” has the fastest pace of the entire batch, but still doesn’t quite go into speed-demon territory, though the higher-pitched guitar bits are of the tremolo-picked black metal variety.
The production uses a lot of reverb to great effect, giving Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire a very cold, old-school black metal feel, though with a lot more low-end and clarity. These tracks feel more like incantations than songs, and mesmerise as much as they rock. Fifth To Infinity may have taken longer than they wanted to in order to release a full length album, but is well worth the wait, as Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire is aboslutely top-notch blackened death metal.