Band:	Nicta
Album:	Rage And Fury Fed Us
Style:	Melodic power metal
Release date:	January 2007

01. Civil War
02. Frozen Sleeper
03. Blossom Of Pain
04. Set The Fury Free

Extreme power metal
Italy, self-produced, 2007
Running time: 30.03


You may already have heard of Nicta two years ago when they released their demo entitled Let The Darkness Welcome You: they were nominated for "Best Demo" in the Metal Storm Awards 2005.
They didn't win, yet this proved they had achieved something quite interesting.

That's why I'm a bit surprised to hold this new demo in my hands now. I would have thought their next release would have been a real album and not another mini-CD containing "only" 4 songs. The reason might be that they wanted to introduce a change: While I was hesitant about whether I should call the music on their previous demo "Extreme power metal" or "Blackened power metal", I would lean towards labeling Rage And Fury Fed Us an Extreme power metal release.

Unfortunately, this new direction isn't really satisfying. While I can note some improvements here and there (a slightly better production, a better artwork, the clean vocals, the always excellent keyboard work), I find the compositions to be weak, less varied, less interesting, less surprising, less catchy... No really, Rage And Fury Fed Us is a disappointment. Yet, that doesn't mean it is a bad demo and those of you who are searching for an Extreme power metal band that doesn't sound like a Children Of Bodom rip off may enjoy this release.
Civil War, the opening track, is the shortest (5:46) and probably the worse song of this new release. It's also the song that represents the band's new style the best. I much prefer the other 3 songs, which are not very different from their former material except that they aren't as interesting. Let's take Frozen Sleeper (the longest song, 8:51): I think the last 2 minutes of this song are unnecessary and make it boring. I also think the singer made a bad choice with the "forced" guttural voice he has on this song.

I already wrote it, this mini-CD is a disappointment to me even though it is far from being bad. It simply fails to impress me and it's quite hard to believe Nicta's music has lost "the magic." Still, they don't sound like many other bands so you may be curious enough to check their new work. As for me, I just hope Rage And Fury Fed Us is just a phase and that Nicta will be back with something better in the future, since we all know they can do it.