Menace – Impact Velocity (Digipack CD, 2014)

Label: Season Of Mist – SOM 328D
Format: Digipack CD
Country: International
Released: 10 March 2014
Genre: Metal
Style: Hard rock/progressive

This band is an international super group of world-class heavy metal musicians. For starters, Mitch Harris and Shane Embury, both from the band Napalm Death and two names (and faces) that should be recognizable to die-hard heavy metal fans by now. Dragonforce’s Frédéric Leclercq appearing on here as well as Derek Roddy of Blotted Science and formerly of Aurora Borealis. Italian string master Nikola Manzan provides some really unexpected work here and there on “Impact Velocity” and his inclusion in this project brings musicians together from four different countries and two continents. “Impact Velocity” is a perplexing progressive rock offering from this new project helmed by Mitch Harris a.k.a. Cygnus & Synergus. This androgynous alter ego is who tells the perspective of this album’s narrative. The voice goes from the hypnotic to monotonic and expresses itself as a character torn between the technological and the organic as well as the identities of masculine and feminine. It’s a fitting and comforting voice to hear on such an exploratory journey through futuristic sonic landscapes. Recommended for fans of Devin Townsend, Devin Townsend Project, Strapping Your Lad, Stam1na.