2006-03-22
Here’s another one of those albums I blew the dust off (somehow it managed to be overlooked, I haven’t the slightest idea how), this one gave me a taste of the Underground metal scene through many genres and different bands on the basis of this Italian label, Akom Productions.
The album has 20 different tracks, ranging from alternative/industrial/nu metal songs, like
Mainline’s “One by one” sounding original even though there are well over too many similar bands (they have an upcoming full length album so this is teaser for it), to more hardcore-punk-crossover bands like
Nowhere, with the powerful track “Saint Whore” or
Timothy’s raw fighting song “Louder than ever” and the fast attack
Germinale launch in “Disordine”, with the awesome dynamics and guitar solos.
Another part of the spectrum is the heavier metal: brutal death/gore/grind by
Muculords, solid death metal by upfront sounding Entity in “Unfulfilled promises”, some mid-tempo thrash infused with some melodic death in
Last Rites ’s “Mind Prison” and even some plain heavy metal (somewhat influenced by the NWOBHM) form another band called Nowhere (this albums has so many songs that there had to be two bands with the same name).
The highlights here are the strong opening track, “Veil” by
Un-Kind, filled with lots of groove and headbanging material (this album would be great to have while driving and the opener is perfect for getting on the road), the 7th track “Last day of my life” by
Fe...Dup which starts off laidback and then picks up bizarrely into the chorus (it even has an added female vocalist serving as the whipped cream on top of this Sunday), the next track,
Media Solution's "Pejote", is a pearl of vivid alt-metal shoveling it’s way through traffic (perfect for road rage); jumping quite far to the 15th track we can find a piano starting a power-prog metal song, “Back to daylight”, that shows great potential in the name
Sin Driven Tide (note that I said potential, meaning this group has work to do sound wise).
Other tracks which I’m not sure how much it’s worth mentioning are the 90’s sounding “Take a stand” by
Sir Psycho which also strike me as somewhat similar to
Incubus, its follower “Buone mani” by a group called
Redefine! which is sung in the native Italian language but has terrible sound (it’s totally unbalanced in my opinion);
Eikasia completes a series of weaker songs with it’s not so fitting female vocaled take on alternative rock/metal, titled “Hello”; or the pseudo- progressive “Freddo” by
Juglans Regia (meaning: walnut tree).
I might have left some of you a bit confused, since I jumped around from track to track - the 17th track, “Son of sam”, is by a band called
Crunch Mob from USA , it features some crunchy guitars, just like the name suggests, creating a simple but good hard rock song.
The next track,
Griv’s “Vuoto momento”, got me thinking I was back to the 70’s, just listen to the way it starts and you’ll want to put on a tie-dye t-shirt, a headband and grow my hair long again – it doesn’t continue in the same manner, something gets lost as soon as the vocals enter, it sounds forced.
The album ends with a cover version of “If you’re happy and you know it” shortly titled “If you’re happy” by
Action Man and slightly verified lyrics wise, followed by a track I would have put somewhere else on the album’s tracklist, “Panic” by
Panic Roots , it’s a fast and short hardcore song which leaves me wondering why it was chosen to end the album instead of leaving the one before it, as a sort of humorous ending.
Overall, this compilation fits driving a car nicely, as well as a teenage party with lost of alcohol and hormones, and is indeed a good display of the Undergroung scene.
Ofer Vayner
