This is the debut album of Idols Are Dead, but the members are not new to the metal business, as the members come from two other Italian metal acts Electrocution (death/thrash band of the nineties) and Folder (crossover) – not that I’ve heard of any of them before, but maybe that’s due to my ignorance of Italian bands in general…(?)

They landed their deal with Scarlet Records after winning the Heineken Jammin’ Festival Contest, and good for them…

I’m not quite sure what to think of this band, on one hand it’s good solid metal, that makes you stomp your foot, but on the other hand….The Metallica inspiration of this band (think “Justice..”/black album era) is MORE than obvious already from the first track, and most of the way through the entire album, especially the vocals made me think, if this perhaps was a lost or left over track from the recording of one of the above… Mix this with some more “average” heavy rock vibe (Guns’n’Roses and their likes), and you have a pretty good idea what IAD sounds like. In the promo material Slayer and Testament are mentioned as a sources of inspiration, but I must have missed the part where they sound like them…or maybe they just don’t!

Sure the guys can all play, and they do it quite well, but the words “rip off!” (of Metallica of course) is just at the tip of my tongue… This fact, combined with the very short playing time of the album (32:36), made my reaction at the end of the album: “That’s it?” – and it still is.