Review by Daniel for Adramelch - Irae Melanox (1988)

I often find myself surprised when I stumble across old bands that seem to have gained such unusually strong underground followings built on decades of word of mouth. I usually find many of these artists to have something in common too in that they generally seem to eschew many of the modern-day production tropes, instead offering a (presumably unintentional) layer of distortion, atmosphere & general naivety that works to draw in an old-school metal audience that’s still hungry to relive the joys of receiving dodgy dubbed cassettes in the mail. Poorly monikered Italian progressive metal outfit Adramelch are a very good example of this concept as I honestly heard bugger-all about them back in the day but their 1988 debut album “Irae Melanox” seems to be regarded as somewhat of an early prog metal classic these days. I had very little idea of what to expect going into it but was quite hopeful given the strong praise I was reading.

The major failing of “Irae Melanox” takes no time at all to show its face upon pressing play with the ultra-raw production making its presence felt immediately. I struggled with this issue significantly throughout my first listen to be honest. It’s mainly about the awfully thin & dry rhythm guitar tone that possesses almost no depth or bottom end & there’s no doubt whatsoever that it should never have gotten out of the demo space. The instrumental work is quite ambitious & expansive for the time though & it soon becomes clear that Adramelch can rightly lay claim to being one of the earlier genuinely progressive metal bands.

Vocalist Vittorio Ballerio delivers a higher register tone that reminds me of Rush front man Geddy Lee crossed with Fates Warning’s John Arch at times but he’s actually more successful than that sounds on paper with his finer moments representing the high points of the album. Unfortunately though, the production issues do limit how much appeal I can draw from this music & the tracklisting is a bit inconsistent anyway. Perhaps the inclusion of some power metal-inspired material across the back end of the album hasn’t helped given my general aversion to the genre with songs like the title track, “Was Called Empire” & “Dreams of a Jester” not doing much for me. More predominantly progressive numbers such as “Decay (Saver Comes)”, “Zephirus”, “Fearful Visions” & “Eyes of Alabaster” are much more to my taste. Actually, I’d suggest that the power metal component is generally overstated on other online resources as there’s a fair bit more to Adramelch’s sound than that so a primary power metal tag is a little misleading in my opinion. I’d suggest that they sound more like the progressive metal of mid-80’s Fates Warning only with a much rawer vibe similar to fellow Italians Dark Quarterer & a bit of the pseudo-power metal of Californian heavy metallers Warlord tossed in for good measure.

Is “Irae Melaox” a good record though? Look, it’s not a bad album overall but I’d suggest that it requires a little patience to get past the production problems. A full three listens were required for me to reach the hooks (which generally come through Ballerio’s vocals) so don’t expect it to open up in front of you immediately & be prepared to give it some time. Diehard members of The Infinite will likely need hear this record but I can’t say that I can see why it’s so highly regarded to be perfectly frank. It does have a timeless quality about it that I suspect is a large part of what makes it so special to many others though.