4Bitten
Delirium

The rock and hard rock scene in Greece is something we very rarely get to know outside that particular country, even though we have seen a few individual stars getting attention in people like Gus G, Mario Iliopoulos and R.D. Liapakis. However, bands consisting solely of Greek musicians are rare to see and therefore I personally feel that 'Delirium', released by the Greek quartet 4 Bitten, are a welcome addition in my pile of albums to review.

'Delirium' is the second album by 4 Bitten and what we're given is classic rock music inspired by more or less every era within rock. The voice of female vocalist Fofi Roussos may not be as beautiful as the one of Aphrodite but it has a striking similarity to the one of other strong female vocalists, like Janis Joplin, Doro Pesch and such, where the voice is so strong that one had difficulties knowing wether it was a man or woman singing. I'm thinking of Medusa when I hear her, seductive in such a degree you will turn in to stone if you give her too much attention.

The music we're served is a pretty normal form of traditional rock among the heavier hard rocking boys. Had we commented wrestling and Greco-roman style we'd placed them among Alexander Karelin and Rulon Gardner - the heaviest boys within the sport but still lacking something compared to strong men like the heavy metal boys, such as Minotaurus and Atlas. The problem I can see with this is that while they want to be heavy they also want to be technical and this ambition is a little bit like the ambitions of Icarus who flew too high and crash landed. I don't think 4 Bitten is crash landing, but now and then they are balancing a bit on the edge of doing so as the music gets too heavy to get that nice, smooth feeling out and without the wings of Daedalus they would have got themselves lost within that labyrinth. Clearly the Achilles' heel is the quest for a heavy and dark sound. Too much Erebos and Tartarus in it, to speak in plain language.

The album goes on for about three minutes longer than the kilometers in a marathon and as Feidippides runs his 42 195 meters he gets to experience eleven tracks, among which the opening track Burning The Candle where Fofi begins the song by shouting out "Hiyyeeeeeee iyeeeee iyeee" like if she were Ares or something. Following this comes one of the slowest songs on the album and like Sophocles it kinds of writes it self around different subjects while going forward. The fifth song is kind of the same and in between we can find three more traditional rock songs that like Ourera are rock hard and straight to the point. Games U Play that comes sixth runs a bit like the river Styx back and forth within the purgatory between heavy and soft as well as hit-adjusted and complicated. Far From Grace on the other hand is more in the area of Poseidon - open water, sweeping everything it wants with it and I think this is a great song that even Zeus will get a hard time triumphing.

At the end we goes back to the heavier kind of rock that 4 Bitten plays where classic rock meets hard rock and almost heavy metal and despite I said that this might be a shortcomming within this album, I don't think it harms them much to sacrifice a bit fine tuning for heaviness because as we know - a Titan is always a titan and not a mere demigod. Sometimes I feel it's close to a cross-breed creature like a centaur or Manticore, the cross between two not particularly logical creatures. Still, this is not something that hits back on 4 Bitten like a Trojan horse or something. This album delivers a sound performance of rock hard music with a mixed feeling between hit and cleverness.

Shortly put I think this is an album that gives you good music without bitter aftertastes. I think Pythagoras would have been proud of how clever they have written the melodies. Archimedes would have said they do the best circles he's seen with the instrumental lines. Euripides would have called the lyrics more grasping than his best tragedies and Aristotle would have said that not even Plato could guide him this well. Me… I say it's a really good album!