Artist: STR8 
   Title: Soul Inside?
   Label: Adverse Rising

Some seven years after the first line-up of Italian metallers STR8 have once again come out of the shadows.  This new line-up includes three members from the original 1998 band lineup.  The nucleus of the band remains with Emiliano D’Alessio on bass, and Flippo Bendinelli and Raffaello Terreni on guitar, who are joined by ex Neutotomy members Alessandro Briganti on vocals, and Luca Lembo on drums.

STR8 are another powerful band to come out of the Italian metal scene and threaten to take on the world.

The album opens up with ‘4-8-2’ and immediately the quality of the band shines through with the hard-hitting guitars only vanquished by the intense vocals of Briganti. 

The vocals of Briganti have a similar quality to that of Metallica’s James Hetfield with the ability to be harsh without resulting to incoherent growls.

This is shown to full effect on the likes of the excellent ‘Fear To Live’ and the bass driven ‘Doom’.

The band isn’t all brashness and vigor though, they do have a few down tempo tracks such as the thought provoking ‘Black Sun’ and the sombre ‘Abyss’.

The Italian metal scene has been at its most prominent for some time now and the quality of bands coming out on to the scene is phenomenal.  STR8 being right up there with the best of them. 

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