Sometimes you ask for albums of which you have a very high expectation, purely based on the name of the band in combination with the musical direction they usually are active in. That is how I requested to do the review of “Circles”, the third album by VICOLO INFERNO. They are Italian, from Imola, near Bologna, a place certainly well known to race enthusiast around the world due to the race course they have there. They have been together since 2003, but didn't release their debut album “Hourglass” until 2013. Just three years later the gave us their sophomore album “Stray Ideals”. It will not surprise you that I haven't heard those two, and that therefore “Circles” is my first encounter with VICOLO INFERNO.

VICOLO INFERNO. That last word got me hoping that the music of this band would have some oomph to it, a certain kind of eargerness and a sharp edge that would have me sitting on the edge of my seat, whilst tapping my foot and banging my head. Even when I found out that the band is a pure melodic Rock/Metal combo I had hopes of a very positive outcome of this review. As you might have concluded by now, my expectations have not been met. And there a a few factors which have been detrimental to that. The first one being that at the initial listening session the only thing I could think of is wondering what the hell Igor Piattesi is singing about. His pronunciation of the English language is atrocious. He is another example of a singer that should only sing in his native language, as he does have a very pleasant voice and is a more than capable vocalist in his own right.

The other thing I was disappointed about is that all the songs just drag along. There is no enthusiasm radiating from the songs. And those aren't really that bad, in fact, they are rather well written and recorded. They might have been well played whilst recording them, I can't know or say. What I do know is that the production has shut down any positive feelings the riffs and breaks should have been giving off. Together with the poor linguistic quality of the vocals it only adds to the deduction of points that I am administering. And that is a shame, because I genuinely feel that VICOLO INFERNO would have made “Circles” into a real good album with a proper production and with their lyrics in Italian. Missed chance indeed.