Sometimes, making highly technical music can be a tough task. You can play and use the techniques you want on your musical work, but you must be wise to make your songs interesting, and easily understandable. The more technical you play, the more you risk your sound becoming more off-putting. Part of this is because only a musician can understand another musician. But there's a strong tradition on Italy: to make music with a high degree of technique, using a heavy sound, yet accessible. And CHRONOS ZERO seems to be a great heir to this tradition, and their newest album, "Hollowlands" is here as proof.

Their Progressive Metal is truly technical, heavy, and extremely abrasive in some moments. The utilization of contrast between clean and harsh male vocals, and great female vocals as well. It's brutal in some parts (for those that insist in putting limits on Metal's possibilities), melodic and tender in other ones, but always heavy. There are some very good orchestrations as well, as seen in the work done by the guitars, the bass and drums are also really great.

Simone Mularoni did great work on the mix and mastering, making their music easy to absorb. Their music is extremely heavy, and the production amplifies the said heaviness, but also utilizes cleaner sounds as their music needs. Enrico Zavatta created a fine and great piece of art for the cover, that gives the perfect embodiment for their musical work. Their songs are rich in musical details, and only one single hearing can't describe "Hollowlands" musicality, you can't comprehend all the fine musical arrangements such easily, "Hollowlands" is full of surprises and finely detailed composition.

Some of the most notable tracks include: "The Compression of Time" is a great track with wonderful vocals contrasts. Another great track is the enigmatic and beautiful "Fracture" with its musical riches lying in the wonderful work on rhythm section and keyboards. The next track, "Shattered" is an incredible track that is not to be missed. "Who Am I? (Overcame by Blackwater Rain)" comes at you with numerous rhythm and time changes. The trilogy "Oblivion" (where the three parts, "The Underworld", "The Trial of Maat" and "The Harp") mix their melodies, an excellent technical level and some really good aggressive parts, with the guitars creating riffs that have the power to suck you in and hold your attention. "Hollowlands" is a great second album that definitely shows off the talent in CHRONOS ZERO, making the promise of a third album all that more appealing.