Release Date July 17th, 2026
Format Digital
Genre Instrumental Progressive/Power Metal
Origin Italy
Rei Code Zero is Lorenzo Visintin's project. The idea goes back to 2017, when he walked away from a four year run in a tribute band playing the music of the Final Fantasy series. He wrote the tracks for "Chronicles" in 2023. The name is half video game title and half computer code, and that split runs right through the music.
"Chronicles" welds progressive and power metal to melodic death metal and dresses it all in the melodic language of Japanese game and film scores, with Dream Theater, Children Of Bodom and Nobuo Uematsu in its DNA. Stefano Zamburlini plays every guitar part and Manuel Trabucco adds saxophone. With no vocals, the concept lives entirely in the music, a soundtrack to a game nobody has made with metal as the engine. The production is bright, modern and stacked to the ceiling, with guitars and keyboards on top and the sax warm and up front. The low end pays for it.
On "Dimensional Gates" the synth layers and orchestral hits pile up so high that the rhythm guitars and kick drum lose their thump. The melodies are the reason to press play. "About Those Who Fight" and "Unleash Your Power" gallop on double bass with leads that stay in your head after one spin, and "It's Not Over Yet!" has the last stand urgency its title promises. Zamburlini's leads do the singer's job, trading Bodom style sweeps with the keyboards on "Fire In The Eyes".
Trabucco's sax turns "Under The Neon Lights" into a night drive through a cyberpunk city and gives "Hanabi Party" a festival swagger no guitar could match. The sax and the Japanese melodic sense are what set the band apart. The shred duels and triumphant key changes come straight from the genre handbook and arrive right on schedule. The middle stretch sags when "Dimensional Gates" and "Holographic Sky" blur into one long level. The running order plays like a game map, from heroic stages to neon city, festival and farewell, and "Goodbye, Satoru!" closes it with the bittersweet end credits melody the whole album was heading toward. It's a strong soundtrack to an imaginary game, a few trims away from the next level.
|7.8
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