Although this is a band with a memorable name, the music is only slightly as attention getting. Hailing from Italy, Merendine Atomiche has a long and distinguished metal history going all the way back to the bad ol' days of the mid 90s when they were releasing tribute albums to pre-suck Metallica.This latest foray into the land of metal represents their, I dunno, 4th or 5th album, if you count minis & tributes. It is interesting, hard to classify stuff that alternates between heavy & melodic, without sounding as stupid & contrived as other bands that try to do this. It all sounds really original; their influences were obvious without crossing the line into flat out rip off territory, which is always appreciated.
But I dunno, an album titled Raw, with such desire expressed in the literature to be hard headbangin' dudes didn't come across as hard or strong as I was hoping, "Walk Across Fire" & "Holy Metal" being CDs in MA's past that sound much harder & more thrashing than this weaker CD.
I didn't like the slowness of a lot of the songs, I thought some of the songs were funny, but not for the right reasons, I thought there were too many pretty-ish ballads on here, some lame, generic intros & tunes. I dunno, maybe with the brand new record deal, they had to water down their sound somewhat, a sad tragedy that's apparently global. This CD may not sound like much, but the other 2 albums I mention above are worth seeking out if you want to hear what was going on in Italy back when thrashin' was in fashion.
