Incoming Cerebral Overdrive
Controverso
6.8
Controverso is the product of a bizarre marriage. Incoming Cerebral Overdrive are a technical, noisy hardcore band that hails from Italy, a country which is better known for its power metal and goth-rock output. Likewise, the Supernatural Cat stable largely consists of stoner-y doom and psychedelic rock (most notably Ufomammut). Appropriately enough, Controverso will probably alienate plenty of Italian metalheads and Supernatural Cat fans alike (along with the bulk of Metal Review’s dear readership), but it’s a solid example of its species nonetheless.
Most of these noodly, scrambled-to-fuck hardcore bands tend to actually suffer from their abundant chops. Their overwhelming technical prowess compels them to make two mistakes: they indulge in wild showmanship that destroys any chance of writing actual songs (I’m looking at you, Psyopus), and they forget that “hardcore” is actually short for hardcore punk. To their credit, ICO make neither of these mistakes—Controverso’s tracks aren’t exactly chorus-driven affairs, but each track is driven by an underlying sense of contiguous groove and delivered with a Sid Vicious sneer. ICO also does a good job of breaking up the convoluted riffing with the occasional stylistic curveball, such as the malicious blues break (thankfully free of Every Time I Die-ish snark) in “Science” and the D-beat refrains of “Sound.”
Controverso is certainly nothing new—Converge, Coalesce, Botch, and many others covered this ground a decade ago, and bands like Wetnurse, The Pyske Project and the much-missed Beecher have expanded upon the style since then. Nonetheless, releases like this one show that there’s still some entertainment left to be had in techy hardcore.
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