If you're thinking "hey, I've heard of this band" it's because you probably have, although maybe not this particular band, maybe the couple of hundred other bands that share their name. Although, maybe they decided to add a tiny flair of originality or even just to make themselves easier to be found by curious fans, they added a hyphen to their name, giving you BULLET-PROOF. Based in Bozano, Italy, this quartet describe themselves as Heavy/Thrash Metal. They were born into the metal scene in the middle of 2014 and "De-Generation" (they must really like their hyphens) is their debut release.

Artwork is something I think is extremely overlooked sometimes. It is usually the first thing you see and sometimes base whether or not you will purchase an album purely on the album art. I know I'm definitely guilty of this. BULLET-PROOF's album artwork was designed by the very talented Tiziano Spigno and does the band a lot of justice. It's definitely one of the better album artworks I have seen lately. Now, onto the album. Their opening song "Instrum" starts off strong with a melodic guitar, although that quickly gets old. This entire song is made up of the same 3 or 4 guitar riffs played for about a minute each time. Not exactly what you want when listening to an instrumental song. This song severely lacks vocals, it feels like the vocalist just didn't show up to record one day and they just decided to roll with it. Throughout the album it becomes evident that the repetitive guitar riffs are not a once off. It happens in almost every song. I'm a strong believer in having a "main riff", it helps make a catchy song. But BULLET-PROOF take it to the extreme and overuse their riffs, making it extremely frustrating to listen to. They also seem like they try too hard to incorporate harmony guitar work and guitar solos into their songs, it seems they are trying way too hard to fit into the genre they chose for themselves.

One aspect I really love about the album is the vocals. Richard has a strong, husky voice which works exceptionally well with the music. The track "You (Heroine)" is a fine example of his spine-tingling voice. It reminds me a lot of Tomi Putaansuu from LORDI (I might get some crap for that comparison). He sings very articulately considering English is (probably) not his first language. This makes it all the more enjoyable to listen to.

This album shows an abundance of promise and potential. I believe in a few more years of working together we could have a great Italian Thrash band on our hands. They're definitely a band to keep an eye out for in the future, but for now, it lacks "oomph" and vitality and just doesn't do much for me.<