Artist: Subhuman
Title: Profondo Rozzo
Type: Album
Label: Maple Metal Records

Italian has always been one of the world’s most beautiful languages. Seemingly exempt from the vulgarities of other dialects, even the sternest insult will sound like an invitation to be sexed up on the back of a Vespa. Italian death-thrashers Subhuman are the perfect candidate to dispel that myth, singing in their native language, new album ‘Profondo Rozzo’, or ‘Deep Rude’, contains nine tracks intended to melt your face rather than your heart.

‘Profondo Rozzo’ opens with the title track, and it is immediately apparent that these guys are technically superb, somewhere between Arch Enemy and early Lamb of God. Zula’s vocals range from death blasts to shrieks to grindesque gruntery, whilst the guitars of Matteo Buti and Elia Murgia carve an effective groove through proceedings. Drummer Francesco Micieli holds things together with an intensity that is borderline Frost-like. This is clearly impressive stuff. ‘Nata Troia’, (my Italian is not perfect, but I believe it’s something like ‘Natural Whore’), blasts along at an aggressive pace and keeps the interest well. ‘Trenta Denari’ or (Thirty Pieces of Silver) continues much in the same vein with a lead guitar break to rival any you’ve heard previously. Rather predictably, and perhaps even disappointingly, we have fulfil the main Italian stereotype here with a Mafia based song, it is saved by nature of the fact that it is the best thing on here, and is just a masterclass in technical death metal. ‘Odio Chiama Odio’ just sounds like a song that makes you want to start a circle pit in your living room, frenetically paced with a riff reminiscent of Slayer at their most aggressive. ‘Babba Fatale’ is a song about an ‘Evil Santa’, with a slight children’s rhyme style about it, if children’s rhymes were delivered in the death metal style, that is. ‘Il Bersagliere Ha 100 Penne’, is a short 2 minute rampage that sounds like it should have been developed further. ‘Infamia e Potere’, (Infamy and Power), never really lives up to its tempestuous opening and feels like it’s been tacked on as filler. This one reminds me of Lamb of God from the New American Gospel Era. Final track ‘1110 Giorni’ (1110 Days) maintains the same kind of sound, and is one of the more generic tracks on here, although still incredibly intense and technical, it seems to lack some of the bite of the earlier tracks.

The thing I love most about Subhuman, is that they do not feel the need to attempt to sing in English, especially with the usual fake American twang that a lot of these band seem to adopt when they do so. They are happy and comfortable to do this in their native Italian, and the result is just stunningly good. Musically they are technically outstanding, and whilst their musical influences are obvious, they are able to transcend those and put their own mark on things. Fabrizio ‘Zula’ Ferzola’s vocals are just perfect. Powerful, guttural and varied. The production is crisp and clear, yet not horrifically overblown and shiny like so many releases these days. In short, ‘Profondo Rozzo’ is a bloody excellent debut from one of the most exciting new bands I’ve heard in some time. Check this out. It would be deeply rude not to!

http://www.myspace.com/subhumanweb

Lee Kimber

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