Regardless of Me - Pleasures and Fear
Italy’s Regardless of Me is an odd band. At times, Pleasures and Fear gets pretty close to being straight-up speedy, modern Death/Thrash Metal, with raw/raspy (male) vocals, and an absolutely stunning, flawless production that is both crystal clear and tremendously powerful. Then Pamela Manzo jumps in with her silky-smooth, but energetic, lead vocals (which are stupidly distorted/modified in parts of “Dispositions”). And occasionally she brings along a non-Metal beat from the drum machine, too, or a piano solo, just to make sure we know that this is “art.” Pamela has a strong voice, but this can sound like two completely different bands fighting with each other in a mash-up war. When the riffs are good (which is not anywhere close to always - some in “From a Darkened Sky” are especially clunky in a Nu-Metal way), and they tone down the weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird elements, and everything else lines up correctly, this band can produce seriously enjoyable music. But not often for very long, although the last few tracks seem much stronger and more coherent than the first several. Oddly, the cover of Madonna’s beautiful “Frozen” seems to be the best blending of styles (and signals the shift to the start of the better songs), although a crazy choice to Metalize, as the original is delicate and ethereal. I can’t remember the last time I thought, “That’s awesome!” and “What the fuck are they doing?!?” so many times while listening to an album. When Regardless of Me wants to kick ass (“Made of Steel,” “Never Lose Myself”), they do easily. I think that they’re just trying too hard to be “different,” and occasionally get a bit off course.
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