Having been temporarily inhibited (through situations at the work space) to continue reviewing on the normal basis I'm used to, I was forced to delay this here review (which is actually part of a 10-album package – the other reviews were posted 29/09 of last) until later date. As I worked in a chronological order to review the albums of that package, I want it understood from the start that this album's later review is only in relation to that fact, and not in any way to a possible lesser “quality” of the product. In my eyes, in fact, this Rimini based Italian band is one of the more interesting acts in the package.
Originally, AoC was formed in 2008 as a band covering Progressive Metal music by the likes of Pain Of Salvation, Tool, Opeth, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Mastodon, and Goblin. Originally comprised of the musicians Mike Crinela (on guitar, also a member of Nahabat), Giorgevich Gori (keyboards), Babbu (bass) and Francesco “Gabro” Gabrielli (drums)...and going under the monicker of Mind Blast, the band was completed in 2009 when singer Alexios Ciancio (formerly of Slave Of Teloth, currently still a member of Deadly Carnage and The Goblynz March) joined in, his joining also leading to the band taking its current name. As the musicianship increased, Bubba left in 2010, and for a while the band alternated between Alessandro Pioli and a guy just known as Luca for their bassist, before setting on Stefano Galassi in 2011. With improved skills (and additional individual personal musical preferences ranging from Funk to Jazz, and from Classical to...”much more” - elements of which can be found in their own music) came also the will to do something with the own improvisations, and in 2011 the guys recorded & released their 4-track Demo Concept demo.
Driven by the initial success of the demo, the band went on to elaborate on the songs already written to complete their debut full-length, the conceptual Eye...for which they eventually signed a deal with logic(il)logic in June of last. Now, as no explanations about the conceptual story of the album are given on either the band's own (www.) facebook.com/ashesofchaos and (www.) reverbnation.com/ashesofchaos, nor at the artist's page of the label's (www.) logicilllogic.net, I'll go into it a little. You see, it's actually a psychological story. In a not too distant future, Earth is threatened by the impact of a huge meteorite and, without letting the people at large know about it, the world's authorities hide themselves underground. Of course, knowledge eventually seeps out, and the people on the surface show themselves from their best, and their worst sides, the latter leading to a global corruption as people, becoming anxious to survive the impending impact, even go to lengths of killing others to enhance their own chances. The protagonist of our story is capable to hide in a small bunker, and therefore survives the catastrophe. When , some time after the impact, he eventually comes out to the surface, and looks out on the post-apocalyptic landscape, he realises that his destiny is a very lonely one. Somewhat shocked by that outlook on his future, he goes back into his underground shelter, and tries to not let hope die, as he understands that elsewhere in the world, people will have survived the meteorite's impact, as he did. However, during is sleep his unconscious thoughts of doubt and hopelessness surface, dragging him to an abyss of desperation, and he's forced to chose between either letting go even further and swirl into the Circle Of Madness until self-destruction...or to resist, and wake up from sleep and nightmares, to carry forward the hope in a human rebirth (from the info sheet we got with our promo copy of the album)!
Regretfully, at the time of checking the label's site still didn't sport any songs off this album on its music player (they usually post 2 songs off each album they release), and no music was to be found on the above mentioned facebook and/ or ReverbNation sites, so you'll have to rely completely on my own description of the band's music. Expect a “softer” Prog Metal act which occasionally flirts with classic '70 Prog Rock and (late) '80s Symphonic Rock, and in the opening track even injects a Folk passage. Throughout the album, the guys use samples to enhance the movie-like story telling. But with the singer you get somewhat of a surprise. He's great when he is himself in a calmer and almost story-telling mood, or when he goes into a blackened mode...but his “normal” singing style is bugged by a somewhat nasal quality, which frequently brings out the Mediterranean accent of his ancestry. Luckily however, the music is so good that one tends to overlook the vocal discrepancies, or starts looking at them as an “ethnic” enhancement. Also, the guitarist and drummer bring additions to the vocals with a diverse styling (going from grunts to harmonic). And, when closing the album with the Italian-sung “Renascita”, all those negativities actually disappear like a mild mist in the wind!
Special guests on the album include Marcello Cavalli (of Deadly Carnage), bringing screamed vocals to the track “Parallels”, and Martina Nepote Pus and Claudia Saponi (the latter of Absynth Aura) bringing the spoken word parts to the tracks “Novilunio” (otherwize actually an instrumental) and “Rinascita” respectively. Nice album, but it remains to be seen whether, in a world where so many bands are abound (and therefore so many band who have the quality of their vocals in sinc with the rest of their music), this band will be able to break out of the purely local confines with reasonable success.