Shivers Addiction
Choose Your Prison
Revalve Records
2015
Italian quintet, Shivers Addiction, releases “Choose Your Prison”, their sophomore album and third release overall, as an EP preceded it all. The band comprises of people like Gino Pecoraro, guitarist and vocalist of Nuclear Symphony, which are a thrash metal band that has been around for a while, as well as Marco Cantoni, who is the voice of Cyrax a prog metal band that recently released a rather nice album, whose taken over from the original female vocalist of the band. Their style is a bit weird as they combine symphonic elements, folk, prog tendencies and will even on occasion thrash it out a bit. It’s definitely a sound that’s a little more intricate, than that of your average Italian band.
They usually go for dynamic and tight riffing that’s technical and sort of thrashy, while the vocals and the overall arrangements add a prog power flavor to all. I must say that Cantoni, however sounded a bit better in Cyrax, as here he tends to go mostly for a vocal style that fits the nervous riffing, so he tries to sound a bit more rough, which doesn’t always come off perfectly. The folk element is mostly evidenced by incidental melodies. Maybe the more apt track that demonstrates the mashing of styles is “Death Has Nothing to Teach”. There are other notable tracks, like the opener, “Eternal Damnation”, the more power metal oriented “Freedom” along with the quirky “Against We Stand” but the better track of them all is probably “Painted Arrow”, a rather melodic track that again explores the traits of the band and originally is more power/prog, but is also reprised as a bonus track with the aid of female vocalist Evelyn, becoming more folk/symphonic.
The band style is distinctive enough to keep them from being heaped with just everybody else, yet they’re someway of from being amazing. Also while the production is good, it’s a bit dry, but then again that’s probably due to the guitar tones being overbearing over everything else… still an interesting enough album and band, worth checking out.
They usually go for dynamic and tight riffing that’s technical and sort of thrashy, while the vocals and the overall arrangements add a prog power flavor to all. I must say that Cantoni, however sounded a bit better in Cyrax, as here he tends to go mostly for a vocal style that fits the nervous riffing, so he tries to sound a bit more rough, which doesn’t always come off perfectly. The folk element is mostly evidenced by incidental melodies. Maybe the more apt track that demonstrates the mashing of styles is “Death Has Nothing to Teach”. There are other notable tracks, like the opener, “Eternal Damnation”, the more power metal oriented “Freedom” along with the quirky “Against We Stand” but the better track of them all is probably “Painted Arrow”, a rather melodic track that again explores the traits of the band and originally is more power/prog, but is also reprised as a bonus track with the aid of female vocalist Evelyn, becoming more folk/symphonic.
The band style is distinctive enough to keep them from being heaped with just everybody else, yet they’re someway of from being amazing. Also while the production is good, it’s a bit dry, but then again that’s probably due to the guitar tones being overbearing over everything else… still an interesting enough album and band, worth checking out.