Carcer City are a five piece metalcore band from Liverpool. Infinite // Unknown is their fourth album and their best to date. The band keep things fairly straightforward on this album, focusing on burying catchy melodies in heavy, drop tuned songs. Thankfully, Carcer City are one of the more unusual metalcore bands of this generation; they largely eschew the shouted verse / sung chorus method used by many modern bands which gives these songs a more interesting structure.
Infinite // Unknown is an album that deserves to be played loud, proud – and, preferably – with a decent set of headphones or speakers, because this release has more intricacies than many bands in their scene. The guitar tone is cutting, the bass is punchy and each strike of the drum kit pops.
Take opener “Infiltrator,” to see an example of the layers built into this album. The track that builds from almost post-rock inspired spacey guitar playing to include a haunting keyboard and steady drumbeat before breaking out into a heavy, djent inspired riff fest.
Track three, “Black Mirror” is as heavy as a truck full of lead and amazingly catchy, too. Throughout the song, keyboard notes are played almost soothingly in the background; it never takes to the foreground of the song but it’s presence gives Carcer City a layer of depth that many other bands in this scene lack. “Black Mirror” seems like it’s built for the live arena: it features a great mosh call – “look at what you have become,” a tough beatdown and an anthemic ending complete with gang chants.
Track 7 “Drifter” is another standout. This one is a lot less complex; it’s an unapologetic deathcore rager in the style of Emmure. It makes no bones about being anything it’s not; this one features no frills and simple yet powerful riffing designed to make your head bang.
The album reaches its climax with the two-part finale “Truth” parts I and I. Part I (Nothing Is Real) is an instrumental track similar to Bring Me The Horizon’s “Memorial”. It features a sampled speech pondering the meaning of truth and freewill and leads into the albums closer “Truth pt. II (Everything is Permitted)” which is an unrelenting metalcore assault that has the band going all out: it features some of the most memorable lyrics, vocal performances, synthesizer riffs and guitar playing of the album and closes things out perfectly.
Some of the songs do fall flat, with unoriginal guitar lines and lyrics that seem so contrived in place but this is a common problem with modern metalcore. Despite these moments, Infinite//Unknown is a great album with a somewhat unique take on what is becoming a bit of stale genre. With another few releases as good as this one, Carcer City could be well on the way to breaking into the mainstream of modern metal music.
Infinite // Unknown is released on 16th September via Stay Sick Recordings.
