CRASH WEBMAGAZINE

MARK: 7
Enterprising! Meschalina offers its personal version of crossover band which contains R.A.T.M.-like phrasing, Hip Hop, melody and original keyboards which make this promo very interesting. A promo which contains 8 songs and lasts 34 minutes, 34 minutes of intense music. Their world is that of no-global fights. I recommend you to go to one of their concerts.

Beautiful Freaks - fanzine

Meschalina, a roman quintet, starts its activity as a R.A.T.M. cover band and this experience leaves, still today, an unforgettable mark in the music of the band. In this debut-CD we find 8 songs which show a band fully aware of its capacities and with a really enviable sound compactness (obtained mainly thanks to the many concerts MESCHALINA has taken part to). The last track is very interesting: on a dub background it tells the dramatic testimony of a German girl maltreated by the police during the Genoa's demonstrations against G8.
(a.p.)

Metal empire

Here we are! Let's analize an excellent CD made in Italy (a good argument to fight those who dislike italian music and listen only to foreign bands songs). I m talking about MESCHALINA s demo, a demo full of excellent music... My best congratulations to this roman band, a perfect blend of nu metal and crossover enriched with high level electronic samples and loops... A beautiful charge of energy which lasts 35 minutes, really beautiful... The R.A.T.M. influences can be easily heard and make much more enjoyable the CD... What else? Find a copy of this CD as soon as possibile! ... Congratulation, Meschalina!... Don t stop following this way, guys! My mark is a good 7 ½.
H.V.

"MUSICA - Rock & Altro" (pag. 16 - number 314 - 7^th of february 2002) attached to the newspaper "La Repubblica"

"Among the best new releases [...] "MESCHALINA", recorded by the homonymous crossover-band supplied complete with keyboards."

"TUTTO Musica" 2^nd of february 2002 (pag.98)

"Four stars for five, wild young people from Rome whose sound is something like Rage Against The Machine's one. The first song contained in the CD, "Bleeding U.S.A.", is excellent and it's worthy of a good american crossover-band. The main riff of this song strike everyone who listen to it, even at the first time. "Anima Imperturbabile", a song with lyrics in italian, is very interesting, too. Nothing to say: it's really a good CD!"

ROCK SOUND n° 47, March 2002 (pag.86)

"The 8 tracks of the MESCHALINA's demo reflect principally the evident link with Rage Against The Machine's sound. The songs are characterized by an obsessive and obscure course, enriched by a light use of the electronics, elements which make the sound much more original. "21/07/2001" is a song about the experience of a German girl from Hamburg who took part to the Genoa demonstrations against G8."

METAL SHOCK n°355, 15^th of March 2002 (pag. 56)

"7/10! MESCHALINA are a band from Rome which start its activity as a cover band of R.A.T.M. Well, I must say that, in this demo, the style of the band doesn't draw away from that of the ex Zach De La Rocha's band. Rap-Metal, Crossover with left-wing slogans and invectives. Having been present at one of their live performances (on the occasion of the second edition of the Nu-Metal Nite), I can assert that the band has a good sound and, definitely, they are technically well-trained, especially Vittorio Pignatelli, the drums-player, but their songs are really too much similar to those of R.A.T.M.: the singer Stefano Teatini seems a Zach's clone, even in his gestures. But MESCHALINA also have a keyboards-player: the beautiful and clever Antonella Montinaro. Maybe, it's time for giving her more freedom in the composition of the songs, in order to make the sound much more original. If the members of the band want to become more professional they must try to become more original and creative. To copy R.A.T.M.'s sound won't let them go anywhere. Anyway, I must admit again that the band is technically well-trained and that its aims are ambitious. On the stage, they know very well how to carry the audience with them. The sound of their demo is good. I want to draw attention to the last song contained in their demo, inspired to what happened in Genoa during the demonstrations against G8. It's an interesting and original experiment which don ‘t follow any rule. I pass them: I'm sure they will mature."

InDiE MoVeMeNt - WeB ZiNe - Reviews - April 2002

"MARK: 7! Meschalina, the CD recorded by the homonymous band from Rome, would have received a better review if it was recorded better and if it wasn't so easily assimilable to bands like Rage Against The Machine, Deftones and Downset, but this two fault reduce the CD ’s quality very much. The band offers us eight tracks where their personality comes out, sometimes, mainly thanks to the guitars, but, the whole work is always limited by the bad quality of the production. We must draw attention to the last track which is the testimony of a girl beat by the cops in the last July during the Genoa demonstration against G8. I hope I'll soon listen to a new CD by MESCHALINA, who have been too limited by a bad production, but the signs for a good prosecution of this work are in the air."

www.fraywebzine.com - Reviews - April 2002

This promo by MESCHALINA come to us from Rome: 5 young people searching for a label! They have many possibility of finding one. Their precedent experience as a R.A.T.M. cover-band, has driven them to the creation of a sound similar to that of the American band (they affirm it all in the CV attached to their demo) and they lavish all their love on their songs, which, anyway, aren't a simple and dull copy of the ex De la Rocha's band. The arrangements are quite original and are based on syncopated and rhythmic metrics, but dark-noise elements appear somewhere. These are keyboards, aren't they? Keyboards? Yes, synth which never obscure the sound and which are used very discreetly and ingeniously. A band which we can really define crossover: the mixture created is very heterogeneous. Eight songs with lyrics in English, except for the seventh track "Anima Imperturbabile", peculiar example of fast raps. Rage and heaviness are assured mainly by the tuned-down guitars. I like their influences, the use of soft electronics, which are indicative of a great open-mindedness which characterize the whole band. They should continue in this direction to make their sound much more original (if it's possible!!!). The good production make the CD much more enjoyable and it would be interesting to be present at one of their live exhibitions, during which, in my mind, they could offer the best of them. If they attain some more musical maturity, someone will notice them.