HEADLESS (Goran Edman) – Melt The Ice Away (2016)

Italians HEADLESS are not strangers to this blog as we presented some time ago their last, solid album with the mighty Goran Edman as vocalist. Again with Edman at the mic, the band is set to release their brand new opus “Melt The Ice Away” next month.

If you are new to Headless, the band fuses traditional European melodic hard rock with some progressive elements driven by the solvent twin guitar work of Cianciusi and Parente, and where Goran Edman’s vocals feel like a fish in the water.
The first thing that impress is the terrific, huge production. Then, the pretty darn good songs.
After the strong hard rocking opener ‘So Much of a Bore’, we have the first highlight ‘Good Luck Resized’, a terrific melodic hard rocker driven by a killer guitar riff and catchy verses where Goran shines. Great guitar work all over.

All the remaining tracks maintain the level of quality… and intensity.
Title track ‘Melt the Ice Away’ is a bluesy based midtempo rocker with tons of melody and a more than interesting progressive touch in a melodic vein.
“Frame” could pass as a ballad, but it’s more juicy than that with a really interesting arrangement and a nice Jim Matheos contribution on guitar.

“Shortage” rocks with groove and at some point reminds me Nineties Van Halen, “A Senseless Roaring Machine” has some Queensryche on it (awesome passages), ‘Stillness of the Heart’ is a straight-forward hard rocker with crunchy guitars, then ‘Gather Knowledge, Gather Wisdom’ provides more variation with its stinging riff.
Closer ‘When Dreams and Past Collapse’ is one of the most commercial cuts, almost melodic hard bringing to mind Edman’s past work with Brazen Abbot.

Bigger, fuller than the alreary good previous Headless album, “Melt The Ice Away” rocks plenty of groove and melody via really well constructed tracks. The guitars are huge, the drum sound is excellent, and Goran Edman is the ice of the cake in yet another stellar performance.
A strong melodic hard rock record with a touch of progressive to provide variation, “Melt The Ice Away” is a highly recommended piece by this blog.

01 – So Much of a Bore
02 – Good Luck Resized
03 – Melt the Ice Away
04 – Frame
05 – Shortage
06 – A Senseless Roaring Machine
07 – Stillness of the Heart
08 – Gather Knowledge, Gather Wisdom
09 – When Dreams and Past Collapse

Göran Edman – Vocals
Walter Cianciusi – Guitars
Dario Parente – Guitars
Enrico Cianciusi – Drums
Domenico Di Girolamo – Bass
Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) – Guitar solo on 4

PRE ORDER:
www.amazon.co.uk/Melt-Ice-Away-Headless/dp/B01CODO9XO
.