Icycore - Biography
Biography
ICYCORE's history began in 1998 at the technical University of Pisa, where guitar player Tiziano Romano and drummer Alessandro Bracaloni found out that they both were fans of bands like Megadeth, Dream Theater, Queensryche and Eldritch. Together with Lisa Oliviero, on bass, they founded the core of the band. "At the beginning, both Tiziano and I were big fans of Thrash, so we oriented ourselves towards bands like Megadeth", Alessandro explains. "My love for progressive music was raised by Lisa, who even then was a very talented musician and had a particular liking of Prog Metal and melodic Metal a la Angra."
Shortly after the band had been established, the guys began searching for a singer. During the auditions, they did not only find the brilliant voice of Valerio Voliani, but a great second guitar player, too: Davide Alberti. An old schoolmate of Lisa's who had helped out at the keyboard (Andrea Petracco) was replaced by Andrea Baroni and so, the band's line-up was complete.
Alessandro: "It has always been important to us to find not only good musicians, but real friends, too. The priority is literally to 'play' with the musicians, not to 'work' with them."
Shortly thereafter, in 1999, ICYCORE released the demo-CD "Altered Feelings", which immediately caused a big sensation in the scene. The media reaction was great, and the first interviews and gigs followed. Alessandro: "It was important for us to stress from the start that we do not play Progressive Metal, we play Heavy Metal - in a progressive way. Our influences had always been very diverse, from Hard Rock to Death - everything!" Underground Symphony Records were immediately willing to pay for the recording of the debut album "Wetwired", and the experienced musicians recorded in the summer of 2001 the twelve album compositions in about record time, and waited for the release.
Time went by - but due to various problems Underground Symphony Records had to procrastinate the release again and again. In the meantime, ICYCORE played a lot of shows in Italy, among others as opener for Eldritch.
Unfortunately, Davide Alberti had to leave the band due to professional reasons, but ICYCORE quickly found a more than equally matched substitute: Francesco Caprina.
Because the cooperation problems with Underground Symphony had become insurmountable, finally Limb Music Products acquired the rights for "Wetwired", and published the album worldwide on May 2004. "Wetwired" is a concept album with a cyberpunk sensational background, but at the same time full of melody and introspective moments. It won high praise of the public and the critics, and it was hailed as one of the best debutant albums of 2004.
After the release of the album, the band devoted themselves to the promotion of the album with some gigs, and at the same time they started to write new material, reflecting their own musical and personal evolution. Quickly a new concept album, called "Evol", took form: a story about love and its exact opposite, a story about a man that has to reckon with all his deliriums and his obsessions, and which unfolds, surprisingly, all that happened before "Wetwired".
After the writing up of the vocal lines, in May 2006, Valerio Voliani, the singer, made up his mind to leave the band to devote himself to another musical project, and caused the putting off of the forthcoming recording. This event had a strong impact on ICYCORE, but they did not still lose heart and soon started searching for a replacement who well could fit in with the style of the new album. Andrea: "It was essential we could find out someone who not only could blend with the band, but could also suit the clear-cut style of the record, who could therefore get the work Valerio had done until then and take it to its final stage... and in a short time, since at that point the recording had been more or less planned!"
The band finally found out that the versatile and powerful voice of Titta Tani (DGM, Astra, Claudio Simonetti), was the perfect voice for "Evol". The recording started in March 2007 and in June, same year, at last ICYCORE completed the mixing of their new effort.
Shortly after the band had been established, the guys began searching for a singer. During the auditions, they did not only find the brilliant voice of Valerio Voliani, but a great second guitar player, too: Davide Alberti. An old schoolmate of Lisa's who had helped out at the keyboard (Andrea Petracco) was replaced by Andrea Baroni and so, the band's line-up was complete.
Alessandro: "It has always been important to us to find not only good musicians, but real friends, too. The priority is literally to 'play' with the musicians, not to 'work' with them."
Shortly thereafter, in 1999, ICYCORE released the demo-CD "Altered Feelings", which immediately caused a big sensation in the scene. The media reaction was great, and the first interviews and gigs followed. Alessandro: "It was important for us to stress from the start that we do not play Progressive Metal, we play Heavy Metal - in a progressive way. Our influences had always been very diverse, from Hard Rock to Death - everything!" Underground Symphony Records were immediately willing to pay for the recording of the debut album "Wetwired", and the experienced musicians recorded in the summer of 2001 the twelve album compositions in about record time, and waited for the release.
Time went by - but due to various problems Underground Symphony Records had to procrastinate the release again and again. In the meantime, ICYCORE played a lot of shows in Italy, among others as opener for Eldritch.
Unfortunately, Davide Alberti had to leave the band due to professional reasons, but ICYCORE quickly found a more than equally matched substitute: Francesco Caprina.
Because the cooperation problems with Underground Symphony had become insurmountable, finally Limb Music Products acquired the rights for "Wetwired", and published the album worldwide on May 2004. "Wetwired" is a concept album with a cyberpunk sensational background, but at the same time full of melody and introspective moments. It won high praise of the public and the critics, and it was hailed as one of the best debutant albums of 2004.
After the release of the album, the band devoted themselves to the promotion of the album with some gigs, and at the same time they started to write new material, reflecting their own musical and personal evolution. Quickly a new concept album, called "Evol", took form: a story about love and its exact opposite, a story about a man that has to reckon with all his deliriums and his obsessions, and which unfolds, surprisingly, all that happened before "Wetwired".
After the writing up of the vocal lines, in May 2006, Valerio Voliani, the singer, made up his mind to leave the band to devote himself to another musical project, and caused the putting off of the forthcoming recording. This event had a strong impact on ICYCORE, but they did not still lose heart and soon started searching for a replacement who well could fit in with the style of the new album. Andrea: "It was essential we could find out someone who not only could blend with the band, but could also suit the clear-cut style of the record, who could therefore get the work Valerio had done until then and take it to its final stage... and in a short time, since at that point the recording had been more or less planned!"
The band finally found out that the versatile and powerful voice of Titta Tani (DGM, Astra, Claudio Simonetti), was the perfect voice for "Evol". The recording started in March 2007 and in June, same year, at last ICYCORE completed the mixing of their new effort.