Victim Of Illusion- When one thinks of the music of Italy, one generally considers either Eurovision, Umberto Tozzi, Al Martino, Vivaldi, Puccini, or Monteverdi: Prog and Metal don’t usually figure. So when Victim Of Illusion popped into my Twitter feed recently, I knew I needed to find out more.
My exposure to prog goes back to Kansas, Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull, etc, and more recently The Mars Volta, Tool, and maybe even The Butterfly Effect. So the chance to enhance this experience was eagerly taken up.
Pierro Giaccone, Paulo Gurlino, and Luca Imerito are the core of this three-piece Turin-based outfit who have been doing this since 2010 and have three releases to their credit. My introduction to their work came through their video teaser for Invisible Light (https://youtu.be/UXXXqBKoKrQ) which promises much:
2011- What Senses Blow Away
Created entirely by the band: written, recorded, produced, engineered, mixed, mastered, marketed, the whole deal. This 5-track release came from jams that were developed and fleshed out over seven months.
Ethereal and chill in places accompanying multiple phrasing and time-signatures; full-on shredding session here with heavy distortion there; loops from the banks used by DefFX (I’ll Be Your Magick) and Caligula (Ruebenesque), and vocals befitting Maynard James Keenan and Trent Reznor all combine to show the world what VOI are all about.
Spiral is the stand out from this collection, suggesting either a slow trek in on itself or outward from itself with the drummer letting loose as the journey along the spiral continues. Guitar loops and bass riffs weave around the beats that create confusion as to where we are in the journey along the spiral. Passages reminded me of Sydney-based alt-rockers &i/Broken Word and some of the sounds they were creating in the mid-to-late 1990s.
2014- Oxodyes
Tool and Scary Mother sounds combine on this result of three years’ honing their craft live and in the studio. A very different collection from Senses. More fitting with the prog/metal label, as well, with the varying time signatures, extended and varying phrasing, and Adam (Tool) Jones guitar styling with Keenan-styled harmonies and layering, interwoven with Mike (FNM) Patton vocals.
From the hopelessness of the day that would never come and the bleakness that was Jamie’s World (https://youtu.be/uqDDiZcJrmQ), VOI explore and expand on what they created from their first meeting and create a melodic work that would fit as comfortably on alternative radio as on main stream stations.
2017- Invisible Light
The teaser for their last album came across in the same vein as Brian May’s tribute to the Ultima Thule achievements the past year. More chill than prog or metal, it intrigued enough to encourage delving into the Italian definitions of these genres.
This this opus is heavier and driven by more guitar work influenced as much by Jones as by James “Big Jim” Martin of Faith No More’s 1980s/1990s classic line-up.
Hollow Man stood out with contrasting hard-rocking and ethereal guitars leading into quieter keyboard/piano breaks. I’ll admit that my hearing, being not quite what it once was, didn’t allow for a lyrical critique, but the musicianship isn’t hard to miss, which grows with each new release.
I would be proud to add any or of these records to my collection and just as happy for any of these tracks to come up randomly on my playlist.
Victim of Illusion- do yourself a favour!
PG (Jacky) Gleeson
19 January 2020
