I find Scala
Mercalli to have uniqueness in many of their traits. They take highlights
from different eras of rock and metal an incorporate it into their music.
I hear distinctive elements from the 70’s like the Geddy Lee like
vocal styles. Vocals can be close to Geddy Lee from Rush, but a few parts
it’s almost like he’s out of control on the high notes. It’s
too over the top. Some of these high vocals are on the verge of being annoying.
The grimace he uses for variation is 80’s thrash and can be akin to
what Dave Mustaine does for his vocals. Musically it’s aggressive
and up-tempo. Much like modern day thrashers like Iced Earth and Nevermore,
who have that 90’s thrash attitude with the modern day heaviness.
And a few old Metallica, old Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Overkill and other metal
and thrash legends also could be a culprit in their song structures. Maiden-like
riffs are a favorite of mine personally, and these guys have a few similar
type riffs, which are also good. “12th Level” has ten tracks
and a couple minutes shy of an hour. Within these ten songs they’re
a few worthy mentions. “Banshee’s Whisper” is an awesome
song. It’s very addicting actually…I must have listened to that
song a good 20 times the first week I had this disc. If Scala Mercalli writes
more thrashy tracks like this everyone would be talking about these guys.
To bad they didn’t have another quite like it. “Dissolved In
Time,” “Day Of Fighter,” and the title-track “12th
Level” are pretty good, but not at the level of the aforementioned.
The productions is decent, a couple things could be cleaned up. Well there
you have it…heavy metal via thrash and power metal from Italy, that’s
Scala Mercalli.
Rating: 73
Reviewed By: Jeffrey D. Adkins |
