ARCADIA/FRACTURE CONCRETE After having earned the respect of the American audience, the very Italian Arcadia finally released their second album after four years from the preceeding "Synth". A period sometimes positive sometimes negative, with some changes of line up and lots of concerts around the world. But what is very important is to find them ready to strike back in their best shape, ready to take out their heaviest weapons with a monolitic nu metal influenced by the most cybernetic fear factory, ready to strike at their highest pitch of composing maturity. Every song establishes a cut from Arcadia's past, a choose which brings them to pure chaos and brutality leaving just a few space to melody and lucidity, except for the chorus. To bring on this musical proposal in its declining period is very corageous. But we don't care, Arcadia gave birth to a very good performance full of passion and sincerity! welcome back!

ARCADIA - "FRACTURE CONCRETE" Arcadia define their own musical proposal as " nu extreme metal", but the definition "nu hardcore metal" would fit better; beware not to misunderstand, this is not an obvious album composed by monotone songs! ; Arcadia's strength is to alternate brutal and violent turnpoints with partes where every single detail is cared, like for example soft electronic backgrounds àla Fear Factory ( Mi Sangre) or back vocals that anticipate, in Italian, the chorus ( Zero and Less), and everything is well mixed creating a granitic and homogenuos sound. All the songs are on the same good level,and each of them of a good quality (listening to them is really a pleasure), so it's difficoult to find out the most representing songs: this Fracture Concrete is to be listened without a pause!! From a technical point of view,each member seems to be very skilled, beginning with Demetrio and Alberto (guitars), the best thing I have listened in this period; in particular I underline their ability in inserting their solos in a genre that not always allows this virtuosity without losing the groove of the song (Sick Sick Sick).Then we find Marco and Edoardo (bass and drums) who give birth to a monolitic rhythmic section (Join a New Pain and ...Et in Arcadia Ego); Michele (voice) wrote his parts basing them on alternating lead/back vocals (Net Realm). Fracture Concrete a masterpiece? we are near. Arcadia one of the best Italian band? you can really say it.

Yeah! the cd presented by Arcadia sounds really like something extremely professional and full of originalities! In fact what we received (Fracture Concrete) is not a demo but a full length, composed of 12 tracks (intro and outtro included) really cared and perfectly arranged. The sound, very good under all points of view,is surely an element that again underlines the potency and the violence of the band! Moreover, the good work of the drummer, Edoardo Nicodemo, emphatizes at its best every single note and passage in each song! Arcadia have just come back from an American tour which took them in the main venues of California! Well, this is the minumum we can want for them since this band demonstrated how to build and structure this great work. Going back to the music I have to say that the mix between strong and aggressive components and slower and more melodic parts is great, and the sound created is really unique. From the first to the last track we are facing a wall of sound, alternating techinique and more melodic parts with a slow mood, exactly complementary one with the other. Fracture Concrete begins and ends with the sound of a drop which may suggest something calm and quiet, placid, that instead leads us to aggressive rhythmics that does not allow to relax, either from a physical or mental point of view. Arcadia's work is a bomb you have to listen to! The cd is available in the official website of the band, you can find the link in the upper part of this review.

After a long break, Arcadia are back, out of the scene since 2001, year in which " Synth" was released, a perfect "fearfactoryan" quotation revisited with an Italian attitude. During this period the band had had problems, also of line up, and had also made new experience like playing in Usa, but the band still revolves around the guitar player Demetrio Scopelliti. The new "Fracture Concrete" is a step forward for the band, which is different from the preceeding clichè but not ignoring it, that means powerful inserts where "cyber rhythmics" take advantage, but at the same time the melodic aspect is not forgotten and well are mixed with an hardcore approach, above all in the voice of Michele Nocentini. The sound is sometimes nervous,unsteady and schizo rythmics which alternate with surgical precision, melodic to angry parts with lots of diverse aspetcs, often inspired by the most dynamic and experimental crossover, with the addition of electronics and a very heavy riffing. Songs like Prozac Generation, Deviated. Zero & Less underline the talent of the band, which lacks some brutality, well expressed only in Sick Sick Sick Concluding,a good coming back for Arcadia. some aspects must be controlled,above all in the clean vocals, but it's a very good album. Gino Schettino