Headless - Melt the Ice Away

Headless Melt the Ice Away cover
Headless
Melt the Ice Away
Mighty Music
2016
6.5
Headless is an Italian quartet that enlists vocalist Göran Edman (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen and many other projects since then) as their singer. They have a quite high musical pedigree a decent enough, if not too dry and somewhat hollow production and a sound that combines hard rock sensibilities and melodies with some early 90s AOR-ish prog, much in the way Fates Warning would sound when they went super-soft and super melodic. Heck, they even have Jim Matheos guesting on track number four, “Frame”, so… there you have it.
 
It’s not all hanky dory, but several songs do work like airy but guitar heavy opener “So Much of a Bore” or the quirkier “Good Luck Resized” or the softer almost Floyd-ish “Frame”. But while they are able to make the formula work sometimes, they can’t make it work as well for the entire duration of the album, which makes it uneven. Edman really raises them above mediocrity with his nearly flawless deliveries, but since this is their third album, I’m not entirely sure what their scopes include and if they’d be able to tour with this line-up and all that. People appreciative of melodic early 90s prog inclined metal, should enjoy this.