ICYCORE

Being intrigued by the front cover, I figured '1 was a risk worth taking when I checked out this album on eBay. It definitely was. Coming from Italy and released under the Limb Music Products label, Icycore stand out from the huge roster of progressive and power metal bands coming from Europe with a very futuristic-sounding approach. Keyboards are used effectively to give us a gloomy and bleak atmospheric vibe to this album. Imagine the Matrix or the Terminator movie series, a future taken over by machines. This is 'Wetwired'.

Musically, this band is very solid. There isn't any really over-the-top virtuoso displays usually associated with this genre, but the band have some pretty intense moments with the combination of crunchy guitars and keyboards playing off of each other really well, especially with the very talented vocalist Titta Tani singing on top of it all.

Highlights of this record include the epics 'A New Gestalt' and 'Eternal Unlife', the fast and hard-hitting tracks 'The Net' and 'Wetwired', and the beautiful piano ballad 'Inner Void'. Unfortunately this band doesn't seem to be the most active group around, which is a shame, because this seems to be a pretty unique and interesting album. I'm not sure if this is for everyone, but I think if you enjoy digging through the whole European metal scene looking for hidden gems, this is definitely an album worth checking out.