Enigma Infinite by Memories In Broken Glass
Release date: January 13, 2017Label: Hammer Forged Records
The new year can bring many things: new jobs, new locations, or New Year’s resolutions. For me it brought sickness, my first illness that kept me home from work in three years (my Facebook memory proved it). Between coughing, sneezing, sleeping, and binge watching Daredevil on Netflix, I listened to promos. One that jumped out at me was from a five piece prog metal band out of San Antonio, Texas called Memories In Broken Glass. They recently released their first full-length album, Enigma Infinite, on Hammer Forged Records.
When I tried to do a little background on Memories In Broken Glass, I couldn’t find much. Their Facebook page lists about as much as I’ve told you, and their Bandcamp is about the same. What I did find were many snippets of Enigma Infinite, and I can see why. For being their first full-length, with only a couple EPs before, Memories In Broken Glass are extremely polished. Opening track ‘Search and Discover’ is a great introduction to their sound. Spacey synths meld into chugging riffs and newish vocalist Saul Castillo’s screams. The chorus transitions to not only Castillo’s clean voice, but some pretty sweet melodies. This is the formula that many of Memories In Broken Glass’ songs follow, but Enigma Infinite flows so smooth, it never gets old. Mark Martinez and Justin Garcia’s guitar work bounces between the aforementioned chug and shred. This combines with Castillo’s vocals gives them a sound that combines all the good parts of Periphery and Coheed and Cambria.
The song that maybe best exemplifies this is lead off single ‘The Constant.’ I do not see a keyboardist listed for the band, only drummer George Frank Garcia’s samples, but they add an extra dimension to Memories In Broken Glass’ sound that many of their contemporaries are missing. Good examples of this are tracks ‘Contrast of Despair’ and ‘Waves.’ Another reason for Memories In Broken Glass’ sweet sound has to be producer/sound engineer Robert Beltran, who is also listed as part of the band. Maybe he had a hand in keeping almost all the tracks on Enigma Infinite that perfect length of around three and a half minutes. Each song is focused and concise, as Memories In Broken Glass never overstay their welcome.
This might just be the flu talking, but I think Memories In Broken Glass really have something with Enigma Infinite. I listen to a lot of this type of prog/djent flavored stuff, and it’s hard to find a band that has bridged the gaps for me as well as they do. The clean/scream ratio, melody over breakdowns, and relative musical memorability are all clicking for me. So check out Enigma Infinite from Memories In Broken Glass, and maybe, even in a flu induced coma, it’ll hit the spot for you too.
