CHEOPE

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CHEOPE - LEAVE ME ALONE LIVE @ STAZIONE BIRRA
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CHEOPE’s story starts in Rome, Italy, in 1999. Guitarist Fabio and drummer Dario decided to put together a new band after the one they founded split up due to musical differences. Agony was a death-progressive band where Fabio’s brother Rian played bass and released an album called “Dead and Buried” in 1998. Finding new bandmates as technically trained as they were, as well as sharing the same ideals of music as emotion. Melody and power all together may be no child’s play in a city with a population of three million. A note on the notice board in a record shop helped them out, and after an intense series of auditions they came up with the current lineup: Erk on vocals, Daniele on the other guitar and Tiziano on bass that joined the band in 2000. They are all fans of solid rock but with extremely variegated musical experiences, that space from the heavy to the funky, passing for the classical music, the electronic music and the rock in his various shades. They are five young musicians whose personal traits contribute enormously to the richness and variety of CHEOPE’s music. With a range of dreams, expectations and ideas as such, CHEOPE makes a sort of alchemic journey looking back over the last thirty years of rock, gazing at 21st century sounds, and always staring at the future. After putting out a four-track demo in 2001 (2K1) which was enthusiastically acclaimed both by the press and by the audience (3,000 copies sold), they intensify their "live" activity playing along Italy. In 2003 they take part in the Magic Tv Live Contest arriving third. In 2004 they are finalists to Rock Targato Italia Contest and in the summer of the same year they take part in the date in Civitavecchia of the Tim & Rock TV Tour. In 2006 CHEOPE finished recording their debut album “Downloadideas”, recorded and mixed at Lead Recording Studios in Rome by Giuseppe Ranieri and mastered in NYC by the legendary sound engineer George Marino. Photo shoot is by Giovanni Canitano with the helping hand of the Vibes Uk London’s Agency that took care of the image of the band. Downloadideas was released on October 13th 2006 in Italy, distributed by Edel and under the Italian indie label Heartlines Music. Since the first months of selling, the album realize very good results (1200 copies in Italy and still selling), taking Cheope to “unplugged” performances in important music shops in Italy. The album is digitally distributed all over the world by Believe Digital, on Itunes and on the best digital stores (Amazon, Raphsody, Virgin, Fnac, OD2, etc.) Downloadideas is properly welcomed by the specialized press and, among the numerous reviews, it’s judged, with vote 9,5/10, Dynamit Album on Rock Hard of November and Cheope reach the 16th position of the Chart, as well as Top Album on some webzines. Downloadideas also gets flattering foreign reviews and enumerated among the best albums 2006 rock from the American site Proggnosis, one of the most important site of progressive and fusion music. (http://www.proggnosis.com/MUSIC_DBCDInfo.asp?txtCDID=20168) Downloadiedas is nominated at the 2006 edition of Prog Awards for: Best Italian Progressive Album, Best 2006 Progressive Album, Best Artwork, Best Recording. Among December '06 and January '07, Downloadideas results among the seventh and the first place, for three weeks without interruption, on the Usa College Chart of New Music Weekly. Currently the album appears in various playlist of networks and web radios, as well as in Italy, also in other Countries of Europe among which England, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Germany, over that in Usa, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico. CHEOPE’s official site www.cheopeonline.com had over 600.000 visits in an year, and their myspace www.myspace.com/cheope over 37.000 in few months, and over 14.000 downloads for the single Leave Me Alone. In 2007 Cheope were selected with the song “On Air” as the only italian band for the sampler of the Progressive Festival “Prog Power VIII USA”. Recently the were invited as guests for the Eutk - Rock Hard Night III In the 2007 Winter they win the Italian super final of the Global Battle Of The Bands and they go to London on behalf of Italy, having a big success at the International GBOB Final competing with 37 bands from all over the world. Cheope opened for artists like: Labyrinth, Jeff Kollman, Kee Marcello (ex Europe), Roger Staffelbach (ex Artension), Meldrum & Gene Hoglan, Chris Catena and others.

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 )