Blood Stain Child
Mozaiq

For all those who have ever wondered at least once in their life how an In Flames track remixed by Ian van Dahl might sound, the answer is finally within earshot and bears the name Blood Stain Child printed on the cover.

Behind the unoriginal moniker, there is in fact a Japanese six-piece which, despite its oriental origins, demonstrates, on the occasion of its fourth full-length album, that it has perfectly assimilated the latest generation Swedish melodic death lesson, to the point of being, thanks also to the masterful work of Tue Madsen on the mixer, even groovier than the European groups themselves.

To make their well-crafted yet familiar melo-death proposal more appealing, our heroes play the card of the most shameless dance-electronics, not unlike what Enter Shikari recently did: as with the Albion band, in this case too, what comes from the fusion of the two genres (which, for the record, taken individually, would not be groundbreaking) is a really captivating and damn effective hybrid, provided, of course, that you are not a die-hard defender or gabber.

To get an idea of our heroes' musical proposal, it's enough to hear the opening of the opener "Exotic-6-coordinator," where a trance base introduces us to a modern metal song that stylistically leans heavily towards the latest Sonic Syndicate atmospheres (with whom our heroes demonstrate they have much in common, from the acknowledged influences of Friden & co. to the presence of a bassist on four strings): as a start, it's not bad, but the best is yet to come...

After a fun and fast "Cyber Green", it's time for the more expansive atmospheres of "Freedom" (in which three band members take turns behind the microphone), before the powerful drumming of Violator introduces us to the double-bass drumming ride of "Energy Blast" (but who chooses their titles? The Powerade Marketing Manager??), during which the band's sound starts to become more and more interesting, albeit still missing that certain something capable of justifying the album purchase by itself...

And finally, preceded by an intro that even Mauro Picotto would envy, arrives at position number five the true highlight of the platter, namely that "Pitch Black Room" which in my personal ranking of "most tacky song of 2007" has rightfully earned the place of honor on the podium, thanks to a sound never so well balanced between trance-EDM rhythms and metal guitars: the video is also unmissable, a sort of "The Quiet Place" manga style!!

The rest of the tracklist moves on the same sound coordinates, skillfully mixing modern metal and euro trance, all wrapped in a futuristic patina that never hurts these days (you'll find more "cyber" in this record than in all of William Gibson's bibliography!): thus excellent tracks are born such as the very catchy "Neo-gothic-Romance" or the thrilling bonus track "Cosmic Highway", not forgetting the more danceable "Peacekeeper" or the folkloric atmospheres of "Innocence".

As entertaining as few, our six almond-eyed heroes thus give us a platter that will delight all those who "our respectable Saturday nights we love to hop on the Fifty to go to the disco to pick up chicks" (hint, hint)!

So what are you waiting for? Replace your worn out Datura cassette with this "Mozaiq" and rev your engines with me heading to Riccione: tonight at Cocorico, DJ set with Gigi d'Agostino and special vocalist Bjorn "Speed" Strid!!