MERENDINE ATOMICHE are an Italian metal band, and this comes across very clearly in the vocalist’s accent, and the lyrics, which show just how lost in translation words can get. These guys showed a lot of promise with the first three songs being very good; “In the Cage”, “Roads and Beers”, and “Raw”. The vocalist has a very good range, and mixes things up with some killer melodies and gruffer yelling parts. After this 1-2-3 combo comes a trio of awfulness with the lame shot at politics (“Peace Means War?”) complete with confused lyrics, “I Want To Be A Man”, and the acoustic ballad, “Ocean’s Shadows”. “Zero Degrees” is a step in the right direction despite this ridiculous line, “Your lips are dry like a stick”, but block out the words and it is a solid song.
Now here’s where things get really stupid. In the press release, the band mentions how this album documents the life of being a band on the road and all the experiences that go with it. With that in mind, it doesn’t take a detective to figure out that “We Didn’t Know” is about the band gangbanging some chick they met. It goes into graphic detail, and is a weak song to boot. This is followed up by the stripper anthem, “Shake For Me”, where apparently, the singer’s veins are “as hard as my cock”. “O, 4 L” is a brief acoustic closer, which gives off the aura of a laidback party atmosphere.
Merendine Atomiche have potential that can be fully realized if they drop the stupid lyrics, take a few more English lessons, and focus on playing the straightforward pounding metal that they do on the few good songs here.
