The Afterlife

The Afterlife is published since the 29th of July, 2022!

Symbolically, the title offers a glimpse at the revival of past ideas in a brand-new coating of musicianship and production, in the fashion of circumstances that have encumbered its creators, mostly concerning the well-anticipated UK & Ireland tour. Songs that had been previously published on the band’s 2017 debut album ‘The Life’ (‘Try To Find The Hope’, ‘Eliza’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Sight Of An Eagle’, and ‘The Life’) have been bestowed with prudently and boldly executed vocals by Mario Huljev. The songs from the acoustic album released in 2019 (‘Only One Thing’, ‘Side By Side’, ‘Didn’t Even Make A Sound’, and ‘Still Not Enough’) gained themselves a new arrangement, imbued in tasteful performance with a clear yet balanced focused on the individual instruments. The album also features the single ‘Dreaming Of Victories’, inspired by the life story of Luka Modric who had led Croatia to their first-ever finals of the FIFA World Cup. Closing the chapter is a mystical and captivating instrumental carrying the name of the album, easily leaving the listener doused in thoughts and intrigue about what will be coming next from Through Infinity.

To give it the world-class polish that the album rightfully deserves, the band has gone to Abbey Road Studios, London where they had arranged the mastering session with none other than Frank Arkwright, known for his highlighted achievements with Elton John (‘Candle In The Wind’), Coldplay (‘The Scientist’), System Of A Down (‘Mezmerize’), Blur, Arcade Fire, The Smiths, The Killers, Joy Division/New Order, among many others.

Featuring:

• Mario Huljev – vocals
• Josip Pesut – acoustic and electric guitar
• Damir Somen – drums and percussion
• Tomislav Lackovic – bass guitar
• Tomo Bacurin ‘Diamond’ – keyboards and piano
• Giuliana Alimoski – flute

Produced by:

• Josip Pesut – arrangements
• Tomo Bacurin ‘Diamond’ – mix (Longplay Studio Zagreb)
• Frank Arkwright – mastering (Abbey Road Studios London)

Tracklist:

“So much about this song happened naturally. All by itself. The way it came to me, the way the band grasped it and then recorded their takes, even the way it fits us when we play it live. We’ve done our best to capture that genuineness in the studio, and despite being a sort-of laid-back power ballad, the song earned its privilege to open the album.”

“This song is about the long-lasting friendships, some of which keep the band together for a pretty long time now (God, does time fly by fast!). Whoever heard the acoustic version might notice that this arrangement only slightly deviates from its original composition, which was semi-intentional because we could take the song anywhere we wanted, perhaps even too far from what it’s meant to be.”

“This song, like many other beautiful things in my life, came out of the blue. I simply took the guitar in my hands and started playing, humming the melody, while the lyrics came about as if they were always there, just waiting for me to tap into them. Spontaneous things are often the best, and ‘Didn’t Even Make A Sound’, in my explicitly subjective opinion, is one of the tracks that carry this whole album.”

“I was listening to ‘The Life’ album in my car, when I realized, halfway into the song, that I started singing along to it, a perfectly suiting melody that came along with the lyrics in the chorus that will have ultimately made it in the song’s final version. To make an acoustic version of this mellow song was the most natural thing in this world. To elevate the original full-band version with Mario’s vocals was but pure pleasure.”

“The guitar riff introducing the song was lying around as an idea for a very long time before the melody and lyrics came about. The night when they came I must have written five other songs, among which were ‘Only One Thing’ and ‘Side By Side’. It just happens sometimes, that inspiration guides you to a state of creativity you cannot force nor impose upon yourself in any artificial way. Although, the topic of this song pretty much explains the nonsensical discontent that was present in my relationship at the time. We had it all, still not enough.”

“Oh… Freedom. With this one, we barely scratched the surface of what Through Infinity really stands for. The ambient electronic version that you can find on ‘The Life’ album must have difficult time trying to fit the shoes of what we’ve done here. Juicy solos, elaborated keyboards and melodies, emphasized enough to respond to the mellifluous yet straightforward vocals; I like how the band opened up about making a monumental track with a free direction. At times, this song can take the listener somewhere up there, and then it brings him back where he came from and then some.”

“Because the chorus so tastefully fit into the arrangement, I didn’t feel bad about altering its original structure anymore. The lead-guitar based chorus I had recorded way way back, when I got to meet Diamond and record at his studio for the first time, was like a totem I would pray to whenever I hit the stage on my own and didn’t know how to involve the audience. Now it’s something different, leaning towards some rock-infused EDM. And live, it leans towards some uplifting gospel. This song, it really gives you options … as long as you can see them.”

“Dear God, how we all cheered when Croatia broke its path to the finals of FIFA World Cup 2018. Match by match, struggle after struggle … war after war … the boys gave their hearts on the field, and when they made it to face France, I couldn’t help but write a song about this enthralling experience. Besides being inspired by the team’s success, I was more driven by the life story of Luka Modric, who was raised in considerably remote area (in a place near the locations where we had filmed the music video for The Sight Of An Eagle), and despite battling incredibly heavy ordeals when the Homeland War broke out, despite being told he would have never made it in football because his small physical appearance, he worked so hard and got where he is today. That man is a living legend.”

“I played this song so many times as a solo guitarist performing over backing tracks, and yet it never occurred to me that I could write melodies and lyrics for it … until we decided to go for a full-length album with Mario Huljev as the singer. When you have a voice of his strength and range at disposal, as a songwriter, the only limits you might have are the ones you impose upon yourself, although I naively thought it’d be a challenge for him to sing out such an optimistic topic. He’s done it excellently. He sang so well that when we went to Abbey Road to do the mastering with Frank Arkwright, he praised him by comparing him to Chris Cornell. And rightfully so.”

“Now this is the version of this song I had imagined when I wrote it being barely 18. The only difference from there and now was that I didn’t know the right people to pull it off, nor I had the means to fund the project. Something tells me this hymn might last for a long time.”

“I wrote this instrumental also during teenage days, on a Sunday after a long night spent partying, and it held a work title ‘Sparks’. The tune, however, stood untouched for more than twelve years before I found the right spot for it in Through Infinity releases. Diamond and Laci have added that something extra to the vibe which I haven’t even suspected, and that’s the beauty of proper teamwork. I reckon that whoever finishes listening to the album will have a lot of ideas on where we’re going to go with our music in our coming albums … but I somehow doubt anyone would guess right.”