Eldritch
Portrait of the Abyss Within

Well, well, what does it say on the top right corner of this nice limited edition digipack? "Italy's most famous Prog Metal band"... How is it that I didn't even know the Eldritch existed? Simple, they hadn't released an album in three years! And now they really intend to make a grand comeback: A limited edition of 5000 copies complete with a sticker, bonus track, rom track, alternative artwork (a bit ugly to be honest, I prefer the normal edition)... These Eldritch are powerful! They're sure to rock hard!
To be honest, the album isn't bad, but it falls well below the expectations created by the impressive marketing operation and the seemingly "exclusive" format.
The drum sound is too fake, the voice tries to master different styles but doesn't always succeed, venturing into feeble growls and rather acidic cleans... Once you get used to it, you can appreciate the very nu-metal guitars, which at first seem to have nothing to do with the genre.
From the songwriting perspective, riffs and vocal lines fail to really captivate me... The only song that managed to catch my attention was "The World Apart" with its big catchy chorus. The album flows somewhat monotonously, "slick," a bit samey, with few noteworthy episodes and, most importantly, few prog elements for a band that likes to define itself as such...

If the album didn't thrill me, it's still partly my fault and the high expectations I had for this release... It had been a while since a power-prog masterpiece was released and "Portrait of the Abyss Within" certainly didn't change the situation!