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Infidels set sights on 2025

It’s the “Chinese Democracy” of local rock records.

Infidels have been talking about a follow up to its 2003 album “All for Nothing” for at least 15 years. Updates would trickle out whenever the band would reunite for a local gig.

Back in 2010, six or seven songs were finished. In 2013 little progress beyond those six or seven songs had been made, but the band was optimistic about spending more time in the studio to finish it.

In 2018 the band was working in Pete Drivere’s Ampreon Recorder studio on new songs. In 2022 John Koury said the album was coming in 2023. In mid 2023 that changed to probably sometime in 2024.

Infidels’ show Saturday at Westside Bowl isn’t a record release show, but the next album is mixed and mastered and coming out in 2025, probably in the spring, Koury said.

Other bands, other commitments and living in different cities all played factors in the delay.

Unlike “Chinese Democracy,” which featured a lone Axl Rose and a bunch of hired Guns carrying on the Guns N’ Roses legacy, the next Infidels’ record will feature the same lineup that recorded the group’s first full-length album, “9:25 and Seven Seconds,” back in 1988 – Drivere and Dave Lisko, guitars and vocals; John Hlumyk, bass and vocals; and Koury, drums and vocals.

“We’re working on the artwork right now, and all the songs are done,” Koury said. “So it shouldn’t be too long but, yeah, it was a long, slow process. The pandemic didn’t help, but it is finally done.”

The tentative title is “Never Forever,” and the band hasn’t decided in what formats it will be released. When they thought it would be out a couple of years ago, the members ruled out a vinyl release because there was a 9-to12-month backlog at record pressing plants. The wait isn’t nearly as long now, and Koury said he expected the band would make a decision on a vinyl release by the end of the year.

He described its 11 tracks as a continuation of the band’s sound.

“It’s kind of in the same direction as ‘All for Nothing,'” he said. “It’s still melodic. And rock. It’s always hard for me to judge stuff that I’m a part of, but it’s a really strong album. I think everybody came to the table with really strong material.”

One aspect that always made Infidels stand out is that all four band members are songwriters and all sing lead vocals, depending on the song. It’s something the members of Cheap Trick commented on when Infidels had a chance to open for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees about a decade ago.

One of the new songs isn’t so new. The band decided to revisit “Evil Change of Seasons,” which originally was released on the 7″ EP “Infidels X 4” in 1986.

“The first time we recorded it, it was really, really fast,” Koury said. “This new recording puts it where it should have been. Now we’ve got it to where it’s a really good tempo, really solid. And I think we’ve all become better musicians over the last 40 years as well, so it’s a much better recording of it.”

Expect a couple of the new songs Saturday with a mix of old favorites.

“I think every album is pretty well represented,” Koury said. “There are a lot of songs, especially the songs I sing, that take me right back to Cedars, the original location (on North Hazel Street, Youngstown). ‘Inside, Outside’ is another one that does that. For a while, that was our signature song, and playing that again, it takes me back to those days when you could smoke in clubs. I was never a smoker and just being in that corner on that stage and just inhaling so much secondhand smoke, I’m surprised I’m still alive.”

If you go …

WHO: Infidels and Flying Underground

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Westside Bowl, 2617 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: $15 in advance through Eventbrite and $20 at the door.

Starting at $2.99/week.

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