Anyone who has been reading my reviews over the years knows that I am a pushover for melodic death metal. It provides a nice middle ground, since it is typically played at a medium tempo, and musicians can add many different influences to the sound seamlessly. Then there are other bands who are content to keep their product pure, and this is the case with the debut by Germany’s Lunarsphere.

Barriers of Infinity harkens back to the 1990’s with a stripped-down take on Gothenburg metal. There are no keyboards, there are no electronica implements, very little acoustic twiddling, and there are certainly no clean vocals. Simply two guitarists that like to harmonize, a raspy vocalist, an obedient bassist, and a drummer who can keep time, all recorded on the cheap. The album is self-released and self-produced, and they managed to give the songs a muted, vintage feel without shortchanging any of the band members. As a pleasant surprise, this is a full-length record, with nine songs that average five minutes apiece.

OK, I lied, there are keyboards, but only in the form of a brief piano intro, and that’s it. Once that runs its course, “Mare Tranquilitatis” enters with an ascendant build-up. The riffage in this song is simple, but effective as they continually ramp up the speed to rile up the listener. “Sacrilege” is a noteworthy tune where they incorporate loads of tremolo picking and tempo changes, sounding straight out the playbook of their countrymen in Fragments of Unbecoming. “Inside a Spider’s Web” must be the obligatory upbeat song, as it oozes with friendly melodies and progressions, and a noodling solo. Listen to their songs long enough and it becomes apparent that they keep things pretty simple, with the lead guitarist playing a lot of chords of single-note strumming, with the bottom end filling in the gaps, but it works well enough.

All things considered, Barriers of Infinity is a mid-tier release. While it falls far short of melodic death luminaries such as Dark Tranquility and Detonation, Lunarsphere write coherent and listenable songs that successfully evoke a response. If they can continue to improve, their future holds promise. Keep on truckin’.