Featured review by:
UG Team, on june 09, 2008
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Sound: Addiction Crew are an Italian hard rock/metal band, with a leaning towards the Evanescence school of thought, albeit without the pretension and egomania. What you’ll find with this album is a collection of pop melodies with a typical metal backdrop. Hey, you’ve even got the female lead singer with a male guitar player that sings a bit. If this setup is familiar to you, then so is this music. The energetic riffs, as generic as they are, can be fairly enjoyable and the strong presence of bass and drums in the mix gives the songs a real pulse. However, there’s only so much that a pounding kick drum can do for a band that’s all about the vocals. For a band like Addiction Crew to stand out from the legions of other copies out there, they need to pen some really quality choruses and it always helps if the singer has a real set of pipes on them. Unfortunately, Marta Innocenti is not the type of singer that can carry a band. In fact, whether or not she’s really ‘lead singer’ is arguable, as Alex Guadagnoli seems to take up just as much time with his average vocals and even rapping. There’s something distinctly ‘off’ about both of them as while they seem to be hitting the notes, their timbre and delivery is not quite up to scratch and sadly, without that the efforts of the rest of the band cannot really amount to anything. // 5
Lyrics and Singing: When you’ve got cliche riffs and cliche structures, you are likely to have cliche lyrics as well. While I wouldn’t be harsh enough to say that they’re entirely generic, the lyrics on ‘Lethal’ are pretty run-of-the-mill. You get some lines such as “Like a fading dream I cannot forget” which make it even more difficult to accept Addiction Crew as much more than a band who just haven’t got it. It’s harsh, but aside from the occasional solid song, there’s no lyrical cleverness to save the band from musical mediocrity. // 6
Impression: You know what, this album is performed with passion and with intensity, and there are some pretty nice melodies going on (‘See Me Again’) but the sense of familiarity is very difficult to shake off. At times, especially in those cookie-cutter verses, Addiction Crew sound like a Eurovision song contest entry that’s been injected with some edgier rock sounds. If that sounds appealing to you, then maybe they’re worth a try, and don’t think for a second that there aren’t any enjoyable songs. The hilariously titled ‘Make A Sense’ is easily the highlight, with polished vocals, crunchy guitars and truly infectious melodies. Aside from that, there are bits and pieces worth remembering (for example the impressive acoustic solo on ‘Hangin’ In The Air’) and it’s safe to say that if the vocals were improved then this would actually be a decent album. Of course, as with quite a lot of albums which rely on vocals it’s worth finding out for yourself whether this band does anything for you, but for this reviewer it unfortunately does now. // 6
- Duncan Geddes aka duncang (c) 2009
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