A few years ago, when the first two albums by the Italians Graveworm came out, I was really impressed by the melodic gothic black metal they offered. Later my amazement (and delight) was great when the follow-ups “Scourge of Malice” and especially “Engraved in Black” hit me with a wall of heavy and dense sound. Then a new surprise (not that pleasant) followed with the slightly apathetic (regarding fresh ideas) “(N)Utopia”, and now it is time for “Collateral Defect”. This time Stefan Fiori is responsible for all the vocals on the album only conditionally. He receives a friendly helping throat from Maurizio Iacono of Kataklysm, and Matze from the young quick-firing metalheads The Sorrow. Thus the vocal variety covers all the fields of harsh singing – from black screams through metalcore shouting to death metal growls, and there are even surprising clean voices in the modern sounding “Fragile Side”. The music again is thick and heavy, but this time the speed gives up place to an atmospheric and tight sound, the compositions are more direct and cleared, sounding closer to melodic death than to black metal. Nice solos vary the heaviness here and there (“Suicide Code”, “Out of the Clouds”), and keyboard passages discretely complete the songs. The tendency of including cover versions of famous songs is still preserved - in this case Bonnie Taylor’s 1984 hit “I Need a Hero” is honoured. A couple of tracks later the CD ends with the beautiful instrumental “Memories”. “Collateral Defect” is a step forward for Graveworm. The band develops, experimenting with modern sound and more direct means of expression without losing its identity and remaining firmly in the field of atmospheric and dark metal. The songs maneuver between styles, sometimes reminding of the earlier mighty records of the band, other times - to the last effort by the Germans Crematory, and sometimes come closer to the metalcore scene, but without sounding like they’re lacking ideas. On the contrary - they leave an impression of creative diversity.