We are visiting Italy today friends. Italian Metal is growing exponentially every year and some new good bands are coming to the forefront. Italy already has a great history with Metal that started in the 90's, with bands like RHAPSODY ON FIRE and LACUNA COIL. Today we have a number of new bands coming from Italy that are trying to leave their mark as well. The band we are reviewing today is called STAGE OF REALITY from Rome, and they are releasing their third full album Digital God since their birth in 2012.

“Welcome The Stage” starts the album and it has a great dose of electronics added to the sound making it more…digital. The sound is interesting nevertheless but not very heavy. Good arrangement and overall performance. I just wanted a little less effects and more guitars.We follow with the album title “Digital God” that I believe uses the electronic elements more wisely and the guitar riff is more in the forefront. The electronic effect bits are in every track and I believe this is part of what the band is proposing in this album. Some tracks are weaker than others like “I Won’t Give Up” that did not surprise me with the vocal melody line. I believe it is beneficial to have the use of the electronic parts as part of the music and not what defines it, or where the riff is based on.

“Free Your Mind” is an example of this. While it is a good song, it lacks power in some parts, especially in the beginning, with the electronic parts in the forefront. I am sure there is a market for this kind of Metal and I blame it all on LINKIN PARK. But to my ears, it takes the purity of Metal and Hard Rock when it is used too much. An interesting track is “Save Me” that is delivered as a tale with keyboards and effects in the background building a crescendo until the guitars come to add more power. The band gets out of their comfort zone a little on this one and I will classify it as the suffering ballad of this album. We get some heavy guitar riffs on “Money For My Dreams” , which is another good track on this album that reminds me a little of MINISTRY on the riff. Every time the guitars are more prominent in the mix, the songs tend to get better to my ears. The singer Damiano Borgi has a powerhouse in his throat and is capable of reaching higher octaves as you can hear in “Sick Of War” that is really a cry for peace. I am sick of wars as well. He can also be very melodic like in “My Inner Prison” that has a nice chorus. The mid section of this song is also interesting with a weird instrumental that is very imaginative. For me, the best of the album so far.

We reach “Filling the Grave” that is more on the commercial romantic Rock side despite the nice bass line from Marco Polizzi . It did not captivate me unfortunately but I can see the appeal. The album is well mixed and the bass can be heard clearly in the mix scoring extra points for me. The band also has 2 solid guitar players in Andrea Neri and Emiliano Tessitore that show their imaginative riffs on the good “The Solitude” that reminds me of ANGRA, and the great vocals of Andre Matos. Great melody, however the guitar duo does not have solos in every song, and in some songs, they will give way to the electronic part as in “Take Me Up” that basically does not have any guitars up until the very end and reminds me of a boring song by DEPECHE MODE. The album sounds uneven to my ears as some songs are quite good, but others did not make the cut for me. A piano starts “Far From Nowhere” that tries to be a ballad but kind of bored me with the desperate chorus.

The band has the chops but I believe is using the electronic parts of the music as their main business card and this is a shame when you have such a good drummer as Daniele Michelacci. We end our rollercoaster journey with “Five Senses” that seems to be a re-recording of an older track as it comes with the denomination's 10th Anniversary. Another suffering kind of ballad that did not impress again. The band is good and some of their ideas are impressively creative, however, it gets lost with the use of the electronics parts in excess and the exhausting ballads. The band needs to decide which way to go. Do I lean more to the heavy music, or electronic semi romantic rock?