Hypnotheticall
Dead World

Active for about a decade, the Vicentini Hypnotheticall land their first full-length album under the Polish Insanity Records label. And one must wonder, upon listening to the album, how a band of such caliber could have waited so long to produce a "finished" product. Indeed, the album leaves one speechless due to the compositional qualities expressed by the quintet, generating in the listener a mix of admiration and bliss that few albums can boast of leaving, stemming from an originality mixed with uncommon skill. Their offering is a journey through eight pieces of progressive metal that cannot simply be defined as such, given the numerous nuances the songs offer, ranging from almost thrash pieces to prog rock of the '70s.

It kicks off with the title track - actually an intro alternating a claustrophobic cacophony with classic sonorities in the most literal sense - the album comes alive with "The Eternal Nothingness Of Sin," a blazing start with technical yet melodic guitar riffs (a bit of a constant throughout the album), where one cannot help but immediately notice the fury of drummer Paolo Veronese (replaced by Francesco Tresca, who succeeds in the onerous task of not making one miss his resignation), also credited for the album's music, whose work will be highlighted throughout the piece. The track unfolds through changes in tempo and sound, making its seven minutes fly by. It moves to what will be the first single, "Fear Of A Suffocated Wrath" introduced by the soft notes of a piano and explodes into a chorus that immediately sticks in the mind, with a central rhythmic section that manages to evoke even some tracks by Meshuggah. The album continues with the eclectic "No Room To Imagination," rich in changes and variations on the theme, where Francesco Dal Barco's voice and taste for melody undoubtedly stand out. Following is "Heaven Close At Hand," among the album's high points, a track as vigorous as it is sophisticated, with highly engaging riffing throughout the compact four minutes of the piece. Still echoing in the listener's mind is the wall of sound evoked by "Heaven..." when suddenly the technicalities of "Hi-Tech Loneliness" swoop in on the speakers, playing with a piece that might be harder than the others to grasp but certainly holds its own in the ensemble. The seventh track, "Lost Children," both oriental and dreamlike, boasts a capacity for continuous metamorphosis, referencing in the same piece the sounds of sacred monsters of prog metal to the more subdued - but no less emotional - progressive rock of British memory, even recalling in some flashes the Control Denied of the late Chuck Schuldiner. The work closes with the instrumental "Bloody Afternoon," written and performed by guitarist Giuseppe Zaupa, in an intimate and melancholic atmosphere that provides the most fitting epilogue to this "Dead World."

In essence, an album that, despite being full of technique, does not tire for even a second of its approximately forty minutes, an exciting proof of a close-knit group formed by the aforementioned Paolo Veronese on drums (but it's fair to mention Tresca, who not only followed the recording and mastering sessions but has been part of the band for over a year), Francesco Dal Barco on vocals, Giuseppe Zaupa on guitar, and guitarist Mirko Marchesini (already with Veronese in the thrashers Airhead) and the inventive bassist Luca Capalbo. A consolidated band that performs magnificently live, as evidenced by numerous live performances visible on YouTube; a group to watch, given the remarkable potential expressed by this first work (with crystalline production performed at the Hate Recording Studio) that fears no comparison with much more renowned names in the international music scene.

The album, distributed in Europe, Canada, and the United States (but not in Italy) can be listened to in full streaming on the band's Myspace and ordered online through the channels indicated on the site... Enjoy it!