Kev Rowland This is the third album from this Gothenburg outfit, and guitarist/founder Stefan Lindholm has moved on from the contemporary neoclassical metal sound with which the band made their name. He explains it by saying “I’m no longer the same person as I used to be, so now I am going for a simpler approach and it’s more in your face. ‘Cage of Infinity’ definitely contains a lot of immediate hooks and choruses. At the same time, I think it just may be more metallic than previously. Possibly a tad Judas Priest-ish, but I'll leave that for the listener to decide!!!”.

Keyboard player Pontus Larsson and bassist Nalle Påhlsson (Therion, Treat, Zan Clan, Last Autumn's Dream) are still here, but there is a new drummer in Henrik Hedman and a new singer in Marco Sandron who has replaced Göran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen, Glory,Kharma, Xsavior). Marco was previously with power metal outfit Eden’s Curse, and he has fitted into the new sound of this band with ease. Strong, and always melodic, there is a powerful bottom end with this album and it is Stefan who drives this band forward. There are some incredible shreds here, and having not heard the earlier albums I found myself wondering just what they are like. The reason for that is while this is a very powerful album, and well worth discovering on many levels, there is always the nagging feeling that actually Stefan is capable of much more than this. Comparable in many ways to Dragonforce, it his solos that really lift this album.

Only time will tell if this is the permanent direction of the band or if he moves in another direction, but for this now this is definitely worthy of investigation while not being indispensible. For more details visit the label site as www.escape-music.com

Time Signature Down in a black hole...

Genre: power metal

Vindictiv is one of those progressive metal bands that I was always curious about, but never got around to checking out. With "Cage of Infinity", I figured that was my chance to check out one of Sweden's premier prog metal bands.

And, the timing couldn't be worse, because apparently the band have decided to make a change of musical direction, abandoning their progressive sound and in stead adopting a straightforward power metal sound.

Although I can imagine that a lot of their prog-loving fans are disappointed with this album, I must say that we are still dealing with pretty good metal music. Embracing heavy guitars and crushing riffs, Vindictiv's new sound has more of a US power metal to it than a Euro one, and each song is virtually an onslaught of relentless guitar attacks in the form of both riffs and leads (many of which reflect a very high level of guitar virtuosity). With double bass drums at the bottom and soaring vocals on top, delivering memorable chorus lines, the picture is complete. While the progressive element is gone, the melodic element is retained, and particularly found in the vocals and in some of the less shreddy guitar leads.

While probably a disappointment to prog metal fans, Vindictiv's "Cage of Infinity" has a lot of elements that should appeal to fans of US power metal. And, while not what many people have expected it to be, the album comes out on top in the power metal genre and is a likely candidate for power metal album of the year.