SPEAKING TO THE DEAF are a young band but are certain to make an impression on the Italian Metal scene, producing their first release ''This Equipment Must Be Hearted'' it's an album you either love or loathe. The Metal quad mix various genre's throughout the album, some good and some bad but the songs sure do stick in your head.

''This Equipment Must Be Hearted'' is opened up by only a 1.43 piano / dubstep instrumental title track before breaking into mixed genre metal track ''My Sacrifice''. A technical groove track is all you can really call it with its constant changing tempo's and aggressive yet ridiculously high vocals from Tommaso Bianchelli, ''My Sacrifice'' is musical marmite, you either love it or hate it. For the start you can't tell if it's PANTERA or LAMB OF GOD and then it hits the rather confusing chorus where the vocals sound just like SILVERSTEIN vocalist Shane Todd. There's no doubt ''My Sacrifice'' is full of riffs by Giacomo Scortichini but it seems they crammed everything into one track. Sadly ''Hold Your Horizon'' is no better with it's awful production quality and strained vocals yet they have removed the cross mixing of genre's to an extent. The guitars and bass need to be down tuned to make it sound a lot better and you could easily compare the drums to METALLICA's ''St. Anger'' album; the only bearable part of the song is the solo at 4.03. SPEAKING TO THE DEAF are a weak version of TRIVIUM mixed with MISS MAY I and it does not sound good.

''Between The Lines'' is opened up with a nice acoustic segment followed by a extremely great solo from  Scortichini which makes you instantly optimistic for the rest of the track, and you're right it's a big difference to the previous two. Despite the guitar tone still being bad it produces great melody for the melodic Hardcore song which matches well to the new style of vocals being added. It's one of the longest song's on the album but is certainly filled by solo's and even better riffs. But SPEAKING TO THE DEAF are back to the mixing genre's in ''A Place For My Memory'', opening up with a jazz style bass riff from Lorenzo Mezzalana which shouldn't even exist on the album as it just does not work in any circumstance because no one wants jazz in metal. Bianchelli's vocals have gotten a lot better and Michele Vitali's drumming has a slight improvement but still simplistic but there is just something missing from the track to make it good. Mezzalana and Scortichini make a great team when putting together guitar and bass riffs to make them sound so individual to anything else when performing ''Resolution''. The track is calm but doesn't make Bianchelli's clean vocals sound any better till the brutal chorus is brought in really brings SPEAKING TO THE DEAF out of its normal metal core shell proving that the italian group can sometimes produce something truly wonderful.

Bianchelli's vocals are on top form with depth but still as harsh as they can get when singing ''Strain Of Mourning'' which combines a healthy mix of Groove Metal and Metalcore unlike when they tried to use it in ''My Sacrifice'' which is nothing compared to this. Vitali has improved a lot with the drum fills becoming more complex to suit the changing guitars. SPEAKING TO THE DEAF need these kind of songs to make a great album but sadly it only has 3 worth listening to. Disappointingly the bands album takes a turn for the worst in penultimate song ''Speaking To The Deaf'' where a lot of the newly added elements should never have even been thought of. Thrash inspired drums and guitars are easy to listen to with brutal death metal vocals making everything  sound great for the first 2 and a half minutes before going into an awful dubstep break down which ruins a great song in its entirety, it can't even be fixed with the hard hitting guitars afterward. ''The Silence Now Broken'' is a huge improvement to the previous track and is a good ending to the album though all parts of the song are rather simple. Vitali's drumming has a nu-metal inspired touch to it and the guitars are typical of metal core though the acoustics are a great touch followed by a solo at 3.32.Overall this track cannot be improved in anyway, the acoustic ending is what it needed and is produced a lot better than the rest.

''This Equipment Must Be Hearted'' is a mediocre album but a good first release from such a small band. The production may have been below satisfactory and the drums at times sounding like the snare from ''St. Anger'' by METALLICA but it sure hasn't annoyed the band and still carried on regardless, they should make more tracks like ''The Silence Now Broken'', ''Strain Of Mourning'' and ''Between The Lines'' for their next album.