Urto, another Italian act harking back to the North American thrash metal's heydays of mid-1980s and mid-1990s, attack with their debut album 'Upside down'. Of course being almost totally imitative to hundreds, or maybe even thousands of bands, can there be any kind of act of grace to make Urto worthwhile?

Hmmm maybe, maybe. Beginning with Metallica's 'Orion' style bass work, the album launches into the masquerade featuring the familiar faces of Metallica, Vio-lence, Exodus, Forbidden, Dark Angel and whatnot. At times Urto enter more technical fields, which Death trampled after the early 1990s. Some bits of good ol' heavy metal can be heard, most clearly on partly Iced Earth-ish 'The Second Coming'. Urto have created an interesting mixture, that is a tad different to total copycatting.

The band are good or excellent players, especially hasty drummer Giuseppe Campisi who deserves a special mention. The pace of the music varies from mid-paced to dominant speedy. Shredding riffs, at times accelerating into vivid gyre. There's a lot of tempo changes going on, as well as reversed rhythms, creating a kind of progresive feel. Everything is rippingly performed, especially the guitars sound biting. The drums sound powerless, not meaning playing-wise, but their sound is way too flat. On the other hand, every instrument is well audible. The vocals are mostly thrash screaming, that mix Hetfield-ism and Death Angel style melodiousness. They feel a bit powerless, but there's gang vocals backing them. The lyrics are about this world, where wrong principles rule.

While the band are competent players and glow of enthusiasm, the multi-parted songs are not that competent. They have fine bits, but they crack up after too many riffs and tempo changes, and because it feels that they are forced, not flowing. This is a heavy album indeed, but in the wrong way. It's just not very catchy. While the performance kicks ass, none of the songs manage to rip of my face but just claw some lacerations. Hopefully Urto will be more into-the-point next time around. Because I believe they can. Try this, is you want some thrash metal with technical skills.

Rating: 6+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/12/2009 14:11