The second album of an Italian prog metal band calling themselves Fake Heroes, ‘Clouds’ is nothing, if not incredibly diverse. Taking the sounds of classic progressive metal and a great many other styles, and compiling them in an 11-song trek of music, this is quite an ambitious project, especially coming after an average debut. However, despite proving that the band is evidently very adventurous, the end result is an album that is very good in the way it turns out, making for an inconsistently enjoyable piece of work.

Led onward by the vocals of singer Manuel Gatta (whose voice is oddly reminiscent of TesseracT’s Daniel Tompkins), the music cycles through everything from classic progressive metal, to djent, ambient, to even a number that could have been on ‘In Utero’. Overall, while I understand that the band is testing the grounds quite a bit with this one, it does feel incredibly tight, and the songs as a result have very big flow to them.

The songwriting is excellent here, very consistent, ranging from excellent (especially towards the second half of the album) to memorable. On top of the album feeling a bit too long for its own good, the album’s structure is in a state of great condition, and Fake Heroes deliver a very good impression with “Clouds.”

Support Fake Heroes here.