Slice the Cake
Odyssey to the West

LA RECENSIONE

I read the comments under the official album upload on Youtube (because yes, today bands themselves put all their albums directly on streaming for free on the tube) and I read a particularly peculiar one: "Shakespeare Metal."

And indeed, the review could end here: Shakespearean Metal.

An epic, very long, much-discussed album, add any “issimo” with a positive meaning, but above all, beautiful: a dreamy and melodic Deathcore/Progressive, almost an oxymoron when talking about this subgenre if one thinks of the various recent horrors of Suicide Silence, and others.

An album that starts "slowly," with a particularly perfect Anglo-Saxon pronunciation, and indeed, Shakespearean at times, almost a poetic theatrical work musically arranged with refinement and taste.

The guitars, together with the rhythm section, navigate through soaring flights of dreamy arpeggios, bone-crushing riffs, and blistering, melodic, and powerful solos, with a bass finally audible and "gnarly" to the right extent without being too overpowering, in short, all the ingredients are there; what surprises most of all, however, is the voice: immensely powerful, choral, and magnificently inspired, with a timbre similar to a Corey Taylor in a state of grace.

There is a storyline that unfolds within the album, being a very intricate concept (another "issimo,” here we go again!), which I will not delve into, but let's say it represents the icing on the cake of a proposition as unique as rare in its genre.

There are many grand examples within the album: the opener, for instance, a track that I listened to on repeat for a period because it is so powerful in its progression, and "Castles in the Sky II - Pieces of Ruins," the "ballad" of the album, a magnificent, stunningly successful piece.

The only "flaw," the difficulty of digesting in one go such a colossal work, representing a true white fly within the Metal landscape today more than ever stale.