This platter includes 3 songs extracted from Italians' debut album. No further info can be found on the internet about the album itself. Looks like Symmetric Disorder and the label want to keep it in secrecy. I think this is a lame way to promote an album, but probably because of all piracy nowadays.

The band has been active since the second half of 2002. If the short history can be heard here, it's definitely because all songs are quite different to each other. 'Brutal' is the most brutal song, modern thrash with some groovy parts. The first riff is quite annoying, but sticks to brain anyways. That's what SD can do; memorable music. Anyways, 'Brutal' has a couple of better parts, but hasn't much to chew. After this simplistic song, 'Abstraction of the Self' shows SD's technical side of death metal. Tempo variations, weirder riffs, "jazzy" guitar solo (Pestilence's 'Spheres' era [1993] and Meshuggah anyone?) and out-of-norms song structure is what the song is about. It's well composed (Death's 'Symbolic' [1995] is something that comes to my mind when hearing this song) and epic ending is the best music on this short promo. 'Rain of Dreams' starts calmly with floating melodies and although lifting the pace and double bass drums kicking in, the song feels quite emotional. And at times quite Gotherburg-esque. Not too much, mind. Majority of the vocals are faceless growl, but the last track's soaring clean voice is a nice touch. SD use synth, but it's more like a nuance. I can't draw any straight comparisons with SD and some other metal band and that's positive of course.

Soundwise this is good enough: modern, but not over-produced. The playing has live vibe. The band are quite talented musicians. That's "quite", because they do not show off like some master instrumentalists. And that's good I think, this way SD's music feels more organic. Cover art mixing photography and drawings is quite bloody unique, if a tad funny, but in a right way.

One lamer song (okay, 'Brutal' isn't bad, but...), 2 good ones. I wouldn't buy the album without hearing more samples or something, but if 'Biomechanical Nonsense Connections' does include more as good songs as 'Abstraction...' and 'Rain...', I'd change my mind. Can't judge an album this way!

Reviewed by Lane
05/07/2005 20:23