Mainline was brought to my attention in my starting days for Metalrage. I received a promo copy of their EP Neurasthenic (of which some tracks return on this disc) which appealed to me. I had some mail conversations with vocalist Maurizio, but we lost contact later. Now they release their debut full-length entitled  From Oblivion To Salvation, let’s see what progress they’ve made.

I am impressed. This disc holds some very interesting material. At first sight I would label it nu-metal, but with its own sound and of some very high quality. But as you listen more closely you hear more influences in the music. The foundation for the songs still remain nu-metal, but there are hints of hardcore, thrash metal and even some death metal to be found. Their bio is in Italian, but I managed to discover that their main influences are A Perfect Circle, Tool, Deftones and Alice In Chains, but they recommend the album to fans of Deftones, Tool and Killswitch Engage. The latter of those surely is represented in the music here and there, luckily not to a level on annoyance.

 

As with my previous review I was complaining about Maurizio’s singing, this time I’m very impressed by his clean vocals. He surely progressed in this area, and luckily he makes more than enough use of this now. This guy can outsing Chino Moreno anytime if you ask me. Besides his singing he still very capable of some hardcore-like screaming. So nothing wrong in the vocal department. Musically everything seemed to be in order as well. Nice atmospheric guitars and the more brutal metal riffs each sound very amazing. The bassist still enjoy some good slapping and pulling, giving the band even more a sound of their own. This instrument is occasionally mixed into the front, making it more than just a supporting instrument. Very cool stuff. The drums still groove and also in this area the use of more styles can easily be detected. A lot of grooving nu-metal parts, the chopping of thrash metal and even a blastbeat is all in a day’s work here.

 

So long after nu-metal is declared dead, Mainline appears. Let’s not call it nu-metal then because of the smeared background of that term, but just say rocking metal. Anyone into atmospheric melodic rock and metal should check this out. I honestly am not kidding when I say that this band wouldn’t look bad on Roadrunner Records or something like that.