This is the third time this year that I've been extremely impressed with a new release from an Italian progressive metal band. Vision Divine's Stream Of Consciousness and Eldtrich's Portrait Of The Abyss Within all caught my ear in a big way and are still two of my top releases for this year. The first two Vision Divine albums were O.K. but nowhere near the quality of Stream Of Consciousness and Eldtrich finally released an album that matched the quality as some of their 90's albums like El Nino and Seeds Of Rage. Now, along comes Icycore, a relative newcomer, formed in 1998 by guitarist Tiziano Romano and drummer Alessandro Bracaloni. Also in the line-up are bassist Lisa Oliviero (formerly with Eldritch), vocalist Valerio Voliani, guitarist Francesco Caprina and keyboardist Andrea Baroni. They released their first demo in 1999 called Altered Feelings and actually recorded Wetwired, their first full length debut, in 2001. It took a while to attract label attention but the band eventually signed with Limb Music.

It's really difficult to describe this band's music in a few words as it covers a lot of territory and encompasses many different styles of progressive rock, heavy metal and power metal. Wetwired is a concept album that has themes of cybernetics, cyberspace (the internet), computer viruses etc. all intertwined with a futuristic storyline. The music is heavy for the most part and the opening title track, Wetwired uses Angel Dust style prog metal with chugging riffs and sprinkles of keyboards, a style that is heard again with the track Visions Of Numeric Life. There's also some speedy power metal riffs and a great instrumental break. There's a heavy Dream Theater influence to the band's sound as well mainly in the style and atmosphere and can be heard on the title track as well as with the short instrumental Upload. The Net is an album highlight and with it's charging and heavy sound mixed with some "tribal" riffing and drum styles, influences from Queensryche are front and center. A catchy chorus is always the "icing on the cake" and such is the case here. The Hollow Man, another album highlight, was the first track to really catch my attention. With a quiet intro, the track builds and becomes heavier with sprinkles of piano, some great soaring melodic leads and a great emotional vocal performance by Valerio Voliani. This band is really off to a great start as far as their lead vocalist. Valerio has a solid and strong voice that shows similarities to Dirk Thurisch (Angel Dust) as well as a much younger Geoff Tate. In reaching for the higher registers, he even has a bit of a Michael Kiske or Timo Kotipelto style delivery. Depending on the mood or atmosphere of the song, he seems to have just the right tone to his vocals. Eldritch's Terrance Holler provides lead vocals for the track Chrome and besides it's mid-tempo heavy style, it has a more progressive Marillion-like feel to it with it's piano and guitar arpeggios. Lots of piano interludes mixed in with booming and pounding heavier sections on a few other tracks even give the band a Savatage edge to their sound. The albums ends with an 8 minute prog metal tour-de-force called Eternal Unlife that pretty much involves every aspect of the band's sound.

Production wise, the album sounds great and special mention must be made of the great and powerful drumming style of Alessandro Bracaloni. Lots of double bass styles are used where appropriate (but not to excess) and he really drives the band's sound. The guitars are a little more up front in the mix much like with Eldritch with an overall blend of guitar and keyboard sounds that is both rich as well as heavy. They have a great exciting, intense and dramatic style and Wetwired is an album that takes several listens to get into. However, I always found myself wanting to listen to this again instead of feeling obliged to in order to review it. If you like prog metal in the Dream Theater vein as well as the heavier prog metal styles of Eldritch all mixed in with a charging and intense power metal sound, you'll definitely like this band. The top notch vocals, exceptional melodic style and great attention to detail with arrangements all combine to make a great album from a very promising new band.