INFINITY

Nice Prog-Metal with unusually agressive drums (2 bass-drums from hell!) and average vocalist. Very much collector's item, musically close to DREAM THEATER's "WDADU" , FATES WARNING and sometimes Power Metal.All songs (except for the last one - bonus from 1998) are complex and vary in moods and themes changes ("Crystal Palace" opens with pretty catchy riff, btw). Not a Must-Have for sure even for a Prog-Metal devotee, but it has some enjoyable bits

"Infinity" is the second demo release by German progressive metal act Payne´s Grey. The demo was independently released in 1991. It follows the release of the April 1990 "Of Tyrants and Reflections" demo. Payne´s Grey formed in 1988 in the city of Karlsruhe and were active in the early- to mid-90s, releasing two demos and the 1995 debut full-length studio album "Kadath Decoded". They subsequently toured with among others Psychotic Waltz.

Stylistically the material on the 5 tracks, 31:55 minutes long demo is a more pure form of progressive metal compared to the slightly more power metal leaning progressive metal of the first demo. The addition of keyboard player Tomek Turek has had a great impact on the sound of Payne´s Grey. While lead vocalist Hagen Schmidt has a tendency to sing in a higher pitch than his voice and abilities allow him to, his vocals are generally much better sounding than on the first demo, which was more or less ruined by his strained vocal performance. He varies his vocal range more on "Infinity" too, which is great for the diversity of the material. The compositions are overall of a good quality with the symphonic keyboards providing a both epic and orchestral element.

It´s not a perfect demo and the sound production could have been much more powerful, defined, and detailed, but it´s decent enough considering that "Infinity" is a demo release. There´s loads of promise here and Payne´s Grey show great progression from the first demo and a taste of what they would become a few years down the line. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).