One of those bands that seems to pale into insignificance when measured against the world-conquering Dillinger Escape Plan, Italian five-piece Incoming Cerebral Overdrive are worth a listen anyways for fans of the style. Second album Controverso is full to the brim of Prog-ridden riffs and twisted melodies, beaten into your head with Hardcore persistence. The band clearly love to experiment, with backing piano thrown in here and there amidst the grinding chaos, especially on opening track Reflections, which kicks ass and takes names from the first few seconds. At times it can be a little too close to their main inspiration for comfort – the riff from Oxygen sounds very Panasonic Youth-y, for example, but this kind of music is done rarely enough to make it enjoyable when done well, as it is here.

There are no doubts about the band’s skill, the technical Science alone making it clear that the band has a kickass drummer and at least one guitarist who knows what he’s doing. Aside from the technical flourishes, Incoming Cerebral Overdrive have another trick up their sleeve – the Prog interlude, and whilst this is rarely used it does make Magic and There into quite enjoyable pieces. The six-minute Magic, for instance, touches on Meshuggah’s slower, heavier territory whilst having an appealing psychedelic feel to the stretches of melody – Botch themselves couldn’t have done it better. There, meanwhile, opens a la Tool and continues in a more post-Sludgy style before returning to the Toolbox for a nice little Prog-out. Elsewhere, the likes of Controversial groove along enjoyably, touches of Converge, uh, converging here and there.

There isn’t really a poor track present, even the more forgettable ones working well and being more progressive and interesting than you’d think – in some ways the band are more Extreme Metal in style than their peers, if still very ‘core. It’s taken quite a few listens to unlock all of the album’s secrets, so don’t expect an easy ride, but overall this is a good piece of music, a rush of euphoria that twists and turns but never quite leaves you as breathless as it should. It’s certainly good enough to appeal to those who enjoy this kind of aggressively technical music – never as psychotic as Ion Dissonance, never as intense as Dillinger Escape Plan, but more a wide-angled look at all the territory which goes into making this little genre as interesting as it is. If you like them, you’ll like this, and I can see many enjoying Incoming Cerebral Overdrive’s take on the genre for its little individual quirks.