Review: Illogo “Isteresi” CD

The quirky Italian band with no name has returned (their "band name" is a sketchy icon of a face, they've started using "Illogo" as a reference just for their own convenience when communicating with people about the band) once again with a much improved demo of their unusual brand of metal - here more focused, better produced, and more interesting than their last piece of already curious music. "Zymotic Zinc Grapes" opens the disc with a blend of dissonant notes that create a weird sort of metal meets indie vibe over pulsing basslines and percussion with a few electronic undercurrents - fronted by harshly distorted vocal screams that are fucking awesome. This is a very strange piece of work, but one that I really enjoy. "Gravita" follows and is the longest track at more than six minutes, taking more of an experimental noise angle for the first half with lots of flowing dark ambient drones and distant samples amidst smatterings of sizzling electronic sounds cascading over the foreground. After that things slowly build in with alternately whispered/growled vocals and clean guitars over a loose rhythm that breaks back down to sparser noise textures soon afterwards. "Impulso" is a mere 50 seconds, opening with blips of noise before plowing into a drum machine blastbeat (or at least it sounds programmed) and chaotic vocal assaults with winding guitars - so nothing really pieces together at all!? The title track closes things out with a similar approach that uses rather lightly distorted guitar parts that have more of a quirky indie/noise rock sound over solid yet open rhythms (accentuated with cool basslines and synths) and plenty of aggressive vocal work that jumps from growling to screaming. Some of the guitar work is slightly more tangible in its use of melody, and repetition plays a bigger role in this one. I have no real issues with the recording at all. The rhythm section sounds great, I love the filters used on the vocals for added atmosphere, and the guitars are nice and bright with a tactful bite to their textures. I'd like to hear the bass get louder to better emphasize the jazzy qualities of the rhythm section, but other than that things sound quite nice. There's not much packaging to speak of here, much like their first demo. The CD-R comes in a clear plastic sleeve with a piece of masking tape across the front that has the band's emblematic face on it along with the song titles and contact information, so the presentation is very minimal and plain looking. That's fine, though. The music is very cool and I'm really intrigued this time around. I really want this band to get signed now, or at least to record more material and release it on their own. They've gotten much better since their last demo and there's something special and innovative about this material. Hopefully that whole icon/band name issues won't cause them any trouble, because this demo should certainly garner them more interest. Good work. Now, give me more!