Italian progressive metal
Empty Tremor, the Italian prog-metallers, are back with new record 'Iridium' after a gap of four years. Singer Gio De Luigi has re-joined, Marco Scott Gilardi takes the keyboardist's cape and Dario Ciccioni completes the new line-up on drums.
The record opens with some outrageously garish keyboards before stumbling into a Tool like chug and guitars that sound like keyboards and keyboards that sound like guitars. Confused? The lyrics are even harder to comprehend: 'Working all the time on your best make up, to appear as if you're smart to their eyes'. Right. Second track 'Run' is a bit more metal; guitars grind, drums crash and roll and the organ sounds more Deep Purple than Super Mario. 'Warm Embrace' is an acoustic ballad that mutates into a space rock marathon. Lyrically, it's still a bit cack handed, 'So hold me close, no matter what you've done to me/ And that your love is over'. You get the gist but maybe an Italian-English dictionary would make a good xmas present. 'Nowadays, it's not easy to be truly understood by someone'- you said it. Musically though the band is very proficient with some good ideas and the new members seem to have slotted in effortlessly. The influence of Tool and King Crimson can be heard all over this record which makes Empty Tremor stand out in a scene heavily populated by Dream Theater rip-offs. Closing songs 'The Last Day on Earth' and title track 'Iridium' ultimately make the album worth the entry fee showing lots of variation (slap bass anyone?) and gymnastic vocals from Gio. 'Iridium' in particular is a great atmospheric, ominous track that shows the best of the band's not inconsiderable chops.
Apparently Iridium is the second densest element known to man, the planet's most corrosion resistant metal and the name of a satellite phone network but precisely what that has to do with this album's vague narrative is beyond me. Answers on a postcared please Empty Tremor fans.