Essenza
In the world of metal it seems one needn’t undergo an extensive search these days to find a little slice of the old school. Although new subgenres rear their ugly heads from time to time, despite occasionally crawling into dark corners to lick their wounds the old dogs never really wander off somewhere quietly to die; that decades after their inception thrash and death metal are still alive and well is more than proof of that. Not only are younger metalheads embracing the reinvigorated sped-up brutality that originally spewed forth in the 80s and 90s from the swamplands and seismic faultlines of Florida and California but they’re also refusing to let go of all things traditional heavy metal, NWOBHM or otherwise (news just in - Iron Fucking Maiden are headlining Sonisphere this year. Fuck. Me. Hard).
To this end there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of bands peddling their trad metal wares, and here’s another one. They’re called Essenza, they’re from Italy, and they kinda sound like if instead of forming Megadeth Dave Mustaine joined a Judas Priest/Tygers of Pan Tang covers band. Formed in 1993 by Carlo Rizella (guitar/vocals) and his brothers Alessandro (bass) and Luca (drums, string and keyboard arrangements), Essenza’s early sound fused hard and prog rock with the blues and classical Italian rock influences, but after releasing two demo’s in 1996 and 1998 - “Essenza” and “Algoritmo 60” respectively - their sound took on a heavier and more melodic sound inspired by the likes of AC/DC, Judas Priest and Van Halen, with even some thrash influences sneaking into the mix.
Upon signing with Kick Promotion Agency in 2000 the band released “Suggestion”, an LP consisting of new recordings of songs off their earlier demo’s, and a second long player in 2002 titled “Contrasto” before witnessing the departure of their original drummer who was replaced by Paulo Colazzo in 2004. A live album and EP followed in 2006 and 2007 and their latest offering “Devil’s Breath” has just been put out through independent Dutch label BigMud Records.
As previously stated, if you consider traditional heavy metal to be where the shit is at then there are moments on this album that’ll take you back to its glory days, with tracks such as ‘Dance of Liars’, ‘Devil’s Breath’ and ‘Flying Acrobats’ bound to set the hearts racing of those ticking the over forty-five box. For those not ticking that box however Essenza’s “Devil’s Breath” is just another yawnable addition to the generic trad metal scrapheap many forgot about when thrash came to town.