Friday 10 June 2016

HEADLESS - Melt The Ice Away (2016)

Genre - Hard Rock / Melodic Rock
Label - Mighty Music

Track listing:
01 - So Much of a Bore
02 - Good Luck Resized
03 - Melt the Ice Away
04 - Frame
05 - Shortage
06 - A Senseless Roaring Machine
07 - Stillness of the Heart
08 - Gather Knowledge, Gather Wisdom
09 - When Dreams and Past Collapse


If you are new to Headless, the band fuse traditional European melodic hard rock together with some progressive elements all driven along  by the solvent twin guitar work of Cianciusi and Parente, and Goran Edman's vocals fitting like a glove.
The first thing that impress is the terrific, huge production. Then, the pretty darn good songs.
After the strong hard rocking opener 'So Much of a Bore', we have the first highlight 'Good Luck Resized', a terrific melodic hard rocker driven by a killer guitar riff and catchy verses where Goran shines. Great guitar work all over.
All the remaining tracks maintain the level of quality... and intensity.
Title track 'Melt the Ice Away' is a bluesy based mid tempo rocker with tons of melody and a more than interesting progressive touch in a melodic vein.
"Frame" could pass as a ballad, but it's more juicy than that with a really interesting arrangement and a nice Jim Matheos contribution on guitar.
"Shortage" rocks with groove and at some point reminds me Nineties Van Halen, "A Senseless Roaring Machine" has some Queensryche on it 'Stillness of the Heart' is a straight-forward hard rocker with crunchy guitars, then 'Gather Knowledge, Gather Wisdom' provides more variation with its stinging riff.
Closer 'When Dreams and Past Collapse' is one of the most commercial cuts, almost melodic hard bringing to mind Edman's past work with Brazen Abbot.
"Melt The Ice Away" rocks plenty of groove and melody via really well constructed tracks. The guitars are huge, the drum sound is excellent, and Goran Edman is the ice of the cake in yet another stellar performance.
A strong melodic hard rock record with a touch of progressive to provide variation, "Melt The Ice Away" is a highly recommended

Rating: 8/10

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