Short for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, this Italian band (current line-up consisting of singer Henry Guy, rhythm & lead guitarist Yorga, rhythm guitarist Jason, bassist Rob Star, and drummer Lancs – the latter apparently a later addition) from Grottammare (a suburb of coastal town San Benedetto del Tronto, itself situated at the Adriatic Sea, almost smack in between the larger town of Ancona in the North, and Pescara in the South) was formed in 2005. With a wide interest in Metal music (described in the info sheet as following “...the great tradition of bands like 30 Seconds To Mars, Alice In Chains, System Of A Down, Tool, and Breaking Benjamin) the band eventually self-releases its debut album Burepolom, an album which generates the interest of My Kingdom Music, which subsequently re-released the album worldwide in September 2008.
The relative success of the album then attracted the attention of American director Richard Terrasi (of Dark Vision Films), whom included three songs off the album in the soundtrack of his Am I Evil feature length movie (the movie eventually went on to win a price of “Best Director” at the Horror Festival in the USA). Shortly after, the band tours in Europe with Ever Grey, and coming home from that they start work on new material for this, their sophomore album.
Next up, the band makes a deal with renowned drummer Marco Minneman (his curriculum includes the likes of Kreator, Necrophagist, Ephel Duath and Joe Satriani) to come and play on the recordings for the new album...and then they contract recording engineer/ producer Jim Caruana (whom in the past not only worked with the greats in Rock such as Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz and Black Eyed Peas – to name but some – but also won Grammy awards for Beyonce's hit songs “B Day” and “I Am Sasha Fierce”, and Golden Globe and Academy awards for the theme song “Take My Breath Away” - you know, from that movie Top Gun?). Last, but not least, the band worked with artist Colin Marks (check stuff by Strapping Young Lad, Exodus, Nevermore and Suicide Silence, among others) for the artwork.
The band's Alternative Metal contains elements of Gothic Metal (nice clean and aggressive mix of vocals, atmospheric keyboard sounds atop the heavy guitars, tonality of the lead singer's voice), Indie Rock, Dark Wave (again attributable to the retro type of keyboards), Death Metal (in the typical guitars play) an Nu-Metal (playing the guitars in the down-tuned regions of the sound scale). Lead vocals are clean, but generally powerful, and the second singer is usually a bit higher on the note scale, occasionally close to a scream (actually, in a couple of tracks he even puts in a growl – check “Suicide Attitude” and ”By A Thread”; or into a weird kind of scream – check “Breathless”). To my personal taste, it's all a bit too slick and produced, but I'll admit the tunes are well-composed, with a focus on catchiness and melodies. Through the percussion and keyboards wacky effects are occasionally introduced, which is a definite plus for the variety of the tunes, and which also brings in a layer of interesting slight complexity. During the first two parts of the song “Staring The Stormwall”, the overall “aggression” is diminished somewhat for a balladesque feel (and this is where at a certain moment the lead singer betrays his Mediterranean origins during a vocally calmer passage – actually, ones having heard thàt, you may find that accent in other songs as well). Another deviation from the band's usual heaviness comes in the first part of the song “Solar Matter Loss” (you'll even find an acoustic guitar being played there), and the altered vocal tonality almost makes you believe that the label slided a track from another band into the download promo of the album...until halfway through the song the band continues in its normal mode (nice diversity, actually!).
If you're gonna look for audio or video on this band, forget their facebook page, in stead check (www.) youtube.com/user/PTSDLIVE and the band's MySpace page (link found at the band's page of the label's site : (www.) mykingdommusic.net). Of course, you can always find 30-second samples of all songs on the album (and the previous one) at either Amazon or iTunes...or, so you should! Oh, before I forget : the album is includes two special tracks, the first being the band's own version of Anastacia's hit song “Heavy On My Heart”...the second being a remix by Forgotten Sunrise of the album opening “Event Horizon” (an extended version with added keyboards, which hardly loses its heaviness in spite of the lack of guitars in the remix, thanks to the vocal “aggression”).