Italian metallers ALEPH just tipped us with their 2005 (!) album In Tenebra and here I am, two years after its release, trying to find out what are these guys made of. I really don't know what to expect since except for a few bands (hail to NECRODEATH), the Italian scene is not one of my favourites.

Even though this album was released two years ago by the band itself, they just signed a distribution deal with Frontiers Records. Anyway, their Heavy/Thrash and a bit of Power/Prog Metal style did not manage to impress me. In my humble opinion, this band needs to improve a lot in order to achieve something more. The singer's voice needs work, as well as his pronunciation. The production is not the best I have ever come across - especially for their style - and the melodies could be a lot better. In fact, there were times I thought that ALEPH wanted to create an ARCTURUS style atmosphere, something that requires the talent and the insanity only the Norwegian psychos have (or to be more precise had).

The band needs to avoid the mix of many elements and be more concentrated on creating something that they like and they can play. They need to find their identity and work on creating a more attractive style of music. In Tenebra is definitely not a bad work, but it really needs a lot of work in order to be characterized as something more than mediocre.