Erk

BEAT IT, TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON FROM THE UPCOMING DOWNLOADIDEAS LIVE DVD @ STAZIONE BIRRA ON 1ST JUNE 2007!
LISTEN TO ALL "DOWNLOADIDEAS" SONGS, FIND OTHER PICS, VIDEOS AND LYRICS IN THE "EXTRAIDEAZ" SECTION OF
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NEW VERSION OF AGAIN IN A CHEOPE SPECIAL ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE
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CHEOPE BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE ALBUM PHOTO SHOOT
LEAVE ME ALONE LIVE UNPLUGGED
@ DISCOTECA LAZIALE
ENRICO “ERK” SCUTTI
Vocals

BIO

Born in Rome on the 28th of February 1978, Erk got into music because of his father, a rock singer in the 1970’s. Erk started playing the guitar at the age of 10, studying with jazz player Eddy Palermo. However, his love for rock music led him to study with Richard Benson and Maestro Roberto Valle. After playing in some local bands, he pursued his dream of becoming a singer at the age of 18 and started taking lessons from Valeria Nicoletta, singer with Paidejia, and then continued with Maestro Roberto Sterpetti at the Scarlatti’s Accademy.
Erk’s voice embodies the key features of CHEOPE’s music: variety, aggressiveness, melody and, most of all, passion.

Musical influences
Erk was influenced by vocalists such as Glenn Hughes, Demetrio Stratos, Sebastian Bach, James La Brie, Mike Patton, Bruce Dickinson, David Coverdale, Russell Allen, Freddy Mercury, Jeff Buckley,Chris Cornell, Alex Baroni, Francesco Renga. A great fan of Dream Theater (his first record was “Images & Words”), Erk recalls Dream Theater’s concert in Rome with Fates Warning as the best show he has ever seen.

Favourite song
“L’elefante bianco” – Area

Top five records in the history of rock
“Burn” – Deep Purple
“Grace” – Jeff Buckley
“Operation Mindcrime” – Queensryche
“Images & Words” – Dream Theater
“Lateralus” – Tool
And many others...

Erk on CHEOPE:
“A rainbow of emotions. Five brothers with their own differences, yet sharing the same love for music, which is a mixture of heart, melody and power”.

Guess what...?
Erk dreams of playing with CHEOPE all around the world.

With Downloadideas, Cheope's debut release announces itself as one of the most talented and effective progressive metal bands to appear this year. Cheope's music crosses back and forth between progressive metal and nu-metal. It doesn't just cross, it also mixes and blends the two together bluring the lines in a most impressive combination of power, melody and virtuosity. Using a twin guitar attack of Daniele Bragaglia and Fabio Serra and no keyboards, Cheope deliver a lot of metal and rock here but consistently knock down the doors into progressive metal. From their opening 3 part suite I'm Confused through the 14 tracks on this CD once the band grab you they do not let go. The title cut Downloadideas plants both feet squarely into prog-metal and is arguably the best track on the album. This 5 member band is bursting with talent. Joining the two outstanding guitarists, Tiziano Milani pushes the music hard on bass with power and movement. Drummer Dario Sacco totally grasps and helps define the band's sound and lead vocalist Erk (Enrico Scutti) writes the bands powerful lyrics (in English no less) and brings power and emotion to the band's sound - the vocals and harmony support are first rate and very effective. Downloadideas does not sound like a debut release. Having heard the band's demo, it is clear that this band had talent, but it is also apparent how much is owed to the maturity gained by the band and the mixing/mastering combination of Giuseppe Ranieri and George Marino. All around , from the first rate packaging to the outstanding recorded sound this is an excellent production. I first came across Cheope through a track on their myspace site. I immediately recognized that the Nu-Metal and Prog-Metal aspects of Coheed and Cambria and Tool were two good references for this band. Though they do not directly sound like either, if you like those bands Cheope will get plenty of playing time on your CD player. Listening to this album also - something I do a lot of - vaguely makes me think of One Hour By The Concrete Lake, Pain of Salvation's outstanding 2nd album. I would not connect these two bands (POS's Concrete Lake is simply in a league of one) but the association does come to mind when I play Downloadideas. Another band I think of when listening to this CD is Collective Soul. Once again, (as with POS) these two bands do not actually sound the same but there is something in the guitar work and song construction that pulls me towards this association. Downloadideas is an excellent album and will definately be on my best of 2006 list. It is one of the freshest releases I have heard in the past few years and for me, everything - on every track - simply works. As MJBrady notes, the band are looking for airplay and a younger audience. One cannot argue with those goals though this might suggest that future albums may have to move away from the progressive directions of this CD to achieve airplay and big sales numbers. Still, Downloadideas succeeds on all measures and whatever directions Cheope take from this point forward, this is a band with a future.

Published on: 14 Dec 2006 By DBSilver - Proggnosis Managing Editor ( www.proggnosis.com )

Cheope are a young, talented and aggressive band coming from Rome, Italy. Not following the progmetal tradition, they manage to mix Nu Metal power with some of the elements of progressive metal. The band consists of five members, all of which have had higher levels of formal musical training, much like their mentors, Dream Theater, who oddly enough, they sound nothing like.
With a skilled line-up, I expected to hear yet another Italian Dream Theater inspired band, but Cheope steer clear of any comparisons, creating powerful, sonic images and aggressive vocal fronts that are more in tune with the younger audiences in mind, as this band would be a nice addition to any Ozzfest line up with their hybrid of Nu Metal and subtle use of progressive elements. It's music fueled by a younger talent base, and one that holds an obvious affinity for inspirations that are both old and new. This band has as more in common with the sounds of bands like System of a Down, Tool, or Crossfade, than that of any atypical progmetal bands around today.
There is enough going on here to attract progmetal fans as well, the skill level of the musicians allows a certain amount of musical expression with gives an element of progressive to the material, first an foremost this music is geared towards getting some airplay, or at least getting the attention of younger audiences, yet by virtue of the bands individual inspirations, you can hear many nuances that transcend any particular genre tags. Fans of bands like Slipknot, Coheed and Cambria, or Avenged Sevenfold, might like this band, yet Cheope do not enlist the use of death vocals or screams.

Published on: 7 Oct 2006 By MJBrady - Proggnosis ( www.proggnosis.com )