Band : Virtual Mind
Album title : Shattered Silence
Label : Lion Music
Distributor : Bertus
Release date : 01/06/2011
Release : CD

A very strange album this is.  It’s hard to pin this music into a slot, since it’s a mix up of diverse styles, among them traditional metal, progressive metal, but also a bit of trash metal.  As a matter of fact it’s a rather good album, despite the trash influences. 

Despite the fact that the album contains only seven songs, total playing time still is almost a full hour, and which is strange for a band that also has progressive influences, there are absolutely no keyboards used on this album.  Not that you miss them, I’d rather say that on this album they would sound out of place. Virtual Mind is a band hailing from Italy, and consisting of Francesco Fareri, who formed the band, and wrote all music’s an lyrics.  He’s the guitar player in the band.  Vocals are handled by Titta Tani (ex Astra, ex DGM, Ashent etc.).  Drummer is Dario Ciccioni (Twin Spirits, Khymera etc) and finally on Bass guitar we have Emanuele Calvelli (Noumeno).

Sadly the production could have been better, and this is the main weak point of this album.  Bass guitar, although being there, is almost mixed away, and the prominent instrument you hear is the guitar.   With a better production this would have been a fantastic album.  Keep this in mind for the following album guys.

75/100

Erik Morren.