We’ve got three new guitar freaks in this fifth installment of the One Man Show series, a continuation of the series after some four months. As nearly always, we’re dealing with purely instrumental Metal again, focusing on beautiful and generous melodies. ‘Nuf said.

Anima Mundi is Italian for “the soul of the world”. Although I do question whether the world actually has a soul, I can tell you that this album is as interesting and diverse as Mother Earth herself.

I actually stumbled across this band by accident. I was looking at the Facebook page of another band and I found a link to this Italian band called Anima Mundi.
I was very impressed with their single the Vision, which was featured on the eponymous album which was released about two months ago.
So I contacted the band, and quickly got a reply from Salvatore Garasto, the man behind the band: he was happy to send me a promo pack.

Remember Ready, Set, Fall!? We put up a very brief post about them in early May and at least I was positively surprised by their cunning catchiness in the shape of Metalcorian Melodeath. It’s not that they’re approaching their game from an original angle of attack or anything; there are about a gazillion other bands that take pretty much the same approach. But they do seem to do it better than most.

That approach is chugging, spiced-up harsh verses and melodic, catchy clean sung choruses. You’re bound to know a bunch of other bands that do this. RSF’s Skyscrapers really got me hooked and grew on me every time I heard it. They haven’t much changed their recipe with Buried Alive, the single to their freshly released Buried EP, which HarveyD tipped us off about.

These guys must be one of Italy’s most talented Metal bands if you ask me. The Milanese group formed in 2002 and has delivered some highly original, progressive even, Melodeath to the world. In 2009 they released their debut Urban Being through Coroner Records.

A year later they followed up with The King is Fat ‘n’ Old, which is what you could call a masterpiece. We fed you two of their songs earlier: Jade’s Place and Neverending Mary. Both tickled our arousal bone.

Well, the band and its label is milking the album properly, because a third music video for the album was released on July 14^th. It’s titled Twice the Price and compared to the two earlier tracks that were singles, it’s a hell of a lot heavier and groovier. Where there were moments in Neverending Mary and Jade’s Place that were on the edge of Metal, this song definitely penetrates Metal area deeply. Was that sentence stimulating dirty thoughts?

Italy’s great for its red hot super cars, its slightly controversial (screwing underage chicks as a 75 year old tends to stir up some controversy) Prime Minister and its lovely food (I just had lasagna, all’ollandese, but still). It is not, I repeat, it is NOT famous for its Black Metal. That’s what we have Norway for, right. But hey, those are just stereotypes and being great at cooking pasta has nothing to do with playing Black Metal or not.

And hence we’ve got before us Nefertum, from the town of Potenza in the province of Basilicata (it’s in the South). We got steered in their direction by our buddy Patrik Carlsson, of Anachronaeon and Eyecult, and found a delicious and saucy piece of Black Metal. Rich with melody and catchiness, but not at all short of darkness and evilness.

We’ll spin you some stuff after the break.

The often praised Brutal / Technical Death Metal Italians are about to release their second full-length since the group formed in 2007. The album is to be titled Agony and follows up on their five-song Mafia EP from last year. Will just dropped us a line to push our ignorant faces into the fact that the band just released a first track.

Now, truth be told, I’m a noob to FA’s music. Of course I’ve heard a bit here and there, and liked it too, but as it often goes with priorities, not everything you want to give its deserved attention gets its deserved attention. I feel kinda bad about that in this case though, because so much praise has befallen this group. Checkin’ out their new material right now, I can see why that is too. Not only is this stuff incredibly fast and mind-bogglingly technical, it’s also rich with atmosphere. The bombastic totalitarian type. Nothing escapes its blast.

The Violation was recently released as an appetizing track to Agony. I don’t know how it compares to the band’s earlier stuff, or what the rest of the album will be like, but The Violation in itself is a delicious piece of music! Find out for yourself after the jump.

The Italian studio group Disarmonia Mundi has long been a favorite of mine. The band consists of only two members, Ettore Rigotti (all instruments) and Claudio Ravinale (vocals of the face-melting-acid type), yet has made a huge name for itself since its formation in 1999. Back in the days there were more members, but over time more dudes left than joined.

And so the band turned its shortcomings into virtues, by inviting musicians and vocalists from other bands. Most notably, Björn “Speed” Strid, who is often listed as a full member of the band – so let’s compromise and call him half a member – has been employing vocal chords on the band’s last three albums. But also Antony Hämäläinen and Olof Mörck of Nightrage have come to the band’s aid.

In the meantime, Ettore Rigotti founded Coroner Records through which the band has released its last album, The Isolation Game. Now, with Ettore CEO of his own record label, Claudio active in another band (called 5 Star Grave, and Strid obviously busy with all of his projects, it must be tough getting albums out. So, to keep their fans happy, the band recently re-released 2006’s Mind Tricks and stuck a bunch of goodies on it.

In today’s issue, a band that I sorta kinda managed to forget about, despite that the two videos following have been on my list for ages now. But, when I recently took a look at them again, I realized again how friggin’ hot this band actually is. Some basic facts on the band first. The four guys call Italy their home and started playing together there in 2004. After two EPs, in 2005 and 2007, they came out with their debut album, From End to End, in 2009.

Collision and Hailstorm are two tracks off that album, for which the band created music videos. These weren’t picked for nothing, as they are, by far, the best songs on the record. Admittedly, it has been a while since I last listened to this album, but I do remember it couldn’t quite get to me much, which is why I sorta forgot about them. Apart from those two songs!

As implied by the title, today’s post contains two bands of which one is really Japanese and the other’s a poser. Their respective band names certainly won’t give it away. Were you to judge by the song titles and the feel and lyrics, however, you’d probably put your money on Imaginary Flying Machines to be the one really Japanese, since both lyrics and title are Japanese. You’d be deprived of your dough though, as it’s precisely the other way around. The “WTF?” and “why?” will be explained.

Despite that there’s no meat in it, I still quite dig a proper Pasta alla Genovese. Basically it’s pasta pesto. Fuckin’ tasty and bound to keep your girlfriend off of kissing for a while, so that you don’t have to stop headbanging. Turns out today, thanks to a suggestion by HarveyD, that there’s also such a thing as Metallo alla Genovese and that it’s equally delicious.

Ready, Set, Fall! Is, you’ve guessed it, from Italy’s city of Genoa. That’s in the North, close to France and Switzerland, by saying which I’ve not only told you interesting stuff about the band, but also updated your geographical understanding of the boot-shaped European country. Seriously, are we good for fuckin’ everything or what?!