Review by JD on November 8, 2012.

Sludge Metal is getting a bit more popular these days, just look at the units sold numbers chalked up by Mastodon with the last album - impressive is the word for that. This is a style that I am getting more and more into, as I review every new album that is handed to me. One of the relative newcomer on to this scene is Italian Sludge/Hardcore/Progsters Incoming Cerebral Overdrive.

ICO is a band that seems to be a triad of distinct styles in one. One side of it is low slung Sludge Metal played with a heavy hand and retrospective lyrics, the next is a Progressive angle that shows off a band that is formulated on talent and the anger and passion of an offshoot of Hardcore to channel all of the aggression they have. It is blended into a well oiled machine of originality, fuelled by the passion that comes with the need for playing heavy music.

Ten songs are offered up by the band, a sort of retrospective into a persons varied thoughts, of sheer craziness and fleeting lucidness, set to a thunderous wall of drums and crushing guitars. Each track seems to follow its own path, piecing out the story of both sanity and insanity with smatterings of grey areas through it - showing a complexity that is both appealing and appalling all done with powerful riffs that simply blows your head off of your body.

Incoming Cerebral Overdrive is a perfect example of what a thinking person’s metal is, yet it shows almost a feral sort of need for headbanging as well. Smarts and nastiness in one package... gotta go with the word awesome. Looking forward to hearing the next album from these titanic Italians... and I hope they don’t keep me waiting for very long.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 9
Originality: 9
Overall: 9

Rating: 9.0 out of 10