Hormesis

On the exact date of their very first release - November 17th - Infernal celebrated their 25th birthday by releasing the album Hormesis.

Hormesis is not merely a collection of pop tunes, it is a journey and the title says a lot about how the two founding members, Paw Lagermann and Lina Rafn have grown in strength and abilities by breaking down and dissolving all that was and what Infernal used to be.

In the 12 years that have gone by, the songwriter and producer duo have spent a lot of time creating music for the “sync” scene, creating songs and tracks for advertisements, TV shows, and movie trailers and Hormesis quite clearly has the desire and ability to put images in your mind as you listen through the 14 tracks that are substantially more about telling stories than they are about hitting the airwaves of your local radio station.

The tracks seem to start in one place and end somewhere else entirely and it is indisputable that Infernal needed to communicate who they are now and how they got there. It is intense and has a seriousness to it that to some might seem like a break-up with what most people consider Infernal to be.

Still though, some things never change and if you look at the artwork and the whole visual side to Hormesis, the duo is ALL IN as always. It took a month to build the set where the cover art was shot and they spent a whole two days shooting all the footage that surrounds this recent body of work. One could argue that it looks more like a film than the artwork for an album, but who could be mad at that?