ANEURYSM is a five piece band that hails from Verona, Italy with already 2 releases under its belt; the first, is the demo Burst (1995) and the second is the full length album Aware that was released after 7 years . This album turned to be the milestone in the band's history, since it was awarded with the prize of the 'best album' by several Metal magazines. The growing reputation gave ANEURYSM the opportunity to perform live besides GRAVE DIGGER and WHITE SKULL in their country's important 'Valpolicella Metal Fest'. In 2004, the band commenced the composing process for the successor to their debut full length album. After almost three years the Italian band is ready to present their next addition to their back catalogue under the title Shades. This is a concept album but I cannot tell you something about the storyline since the promo CD came without the lyrics (sorry). Maybe we will discover the story behind the 9 songs (the shades tracks are short instrumentals) of the album in a possible interview with the band. The first encounter with ANEURYSM's music is a little bit confusing; their music is a strange blend of mid tempo Thrash with sophisticated Progressive Metal passages. The vocals are mainly high pitched with an almost original timbre; I say 'almost' because the aggressive parts remind me of Hansi Kursh (BLIND GUARDIAN). Actually, Hansi makes a guest appearance in the almost Thrasher and possibly best track of the album Reflection adding some more melody to it, especially during the catchy chorus. Without knowing the storyline I can assure you that ANEURYSM have created quite an atmosphere with all the strange samples, the keyboards sounds and the guitar riffs with the strange time signatures. The guitar work becomes really impressive in the slow tempo track Real Ease that comprises a 2 minute solo. Well, the BLIND GUARDIAN influences can also be found in the clean guitars where I think they are utilizing the same tuning (standard Eb). Among the highlights there are the headbanger Black Narrow Eyes the ala SYMPHONY X track My Reward and the keayboard driven Inquietudo Animi. Reading what I've written above, I can say that ANEURYSM managed to impress