Artwork by: Vini Vhummel
Style: Progressive metal, technical thrash metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Death, Coroner, Nevermore
Country: Italy
Release date: 4 December 2025
Since my early days listening to heavy music, I’ve gravitated toward the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when metal began to take a progressive, technical turn. With …And Justice for All in 1988, Metallica famously expanded on their iconic thrash style, featuring labyrinthine song structures and winding guitars that slithered all around the album. Meanwhile in the underground, Coroner and Voivod were busy dragging thrash firmly into progressive territory. Death, fresh off defining death metal as a style, quickly began pushing the genre to dizzying heights; and Atheist and Cynic blew the paradigm wide open with their debuts in the early ‘90s.
This hardly scratches the surface of metal’s technical evolution, but it captures much of the music that formed the foundation for my taste—and more importantly for the sake of this review, the foundation of Italy’s Jester Majesty. If it weren’t evident enough from the first few minutes of their debut album, Infinite Measure, Finite Existence, the band describe themselves as “a modern resurrection of late ’80s and ‘90s progressive/technical metal, filtered through a dystopian lens.” And that’s exactly what you get. Carried by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Alessandro Gargivolo, Jester Majesty blaze through ten tracks that harken back to that golden era. Although gold may not tarnish, fool’s gold does: any guess which one this Jester is offering?
If I can take anything away from Infinite Measure, Finite Existence, it’s that Gargivolo can riff. Front to back, the album supplies a near-constant stream of fast, thrashy riffing in varying shades of tech and prog. After a short opener, “Human vs. Machine” states the band’s case in eight frenetic minutes, packing about a hundred riffs inspired by the styles of Coroner and, especially, Death. Gargivolo’s tone and melodic palette often mirror Chuck’s in The Sound of Perseverance—nearly every track has at least one part that bears an uncanny resemblance, a couple of the obvious ones appearing a little under five minutes into “Human vs. Machine” and throughout the first forty-five seconds of “The Curse of Majesty.” More egregiously, “Amphibian to Chameleon” begins almost the same as the Death deep cut “Low Life” from Spiritual Healing. Nevertheless, Gargivolo’s performance is solid, particularly in standout track “When Numbers Speak,” and the solos sprinkled across the album by lead guitarist Erymanthon Seth are consistently strong. Even the chunky, albeit simple, bass performed by Gargivolo is an effective part of the band’s sound.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the record’s other elements. For one, its production is thoroughly brickwalled, to the point that even the rare clean guitar passages blare in almost the same way as the heavier ones. The programmed drums exacerbate this issue, as each virtual hit rings at the same volume as every other hit—loud! In sections where the drums play purportedly softer, simpler beats, like the intro to “Echoes of ∏,” they completely lack dynamics, making parts of the album sound like a YouTube guitarist playing over a noisy, stock drum machine. A human touch, or drum programming that factors in human-like dynamics, would pay massive dividends in improving Infinite Measure, Finite Existence’s sound.
Just as the production and drums lack dynamics, so too does the songwriting—at least when viewed at the album level. The songs have sudden tempo changes, a few different riffing styles, and slight shifts in texture, but the consistent and predictable use of these components makes the tracks blur together. After several listens, if you were to drop me in the middle of any given song, there’s no shot I could tell you which one is playing. Still, one element hampers the record more than any other: the vocals. Stuck somewhere between a gruff rasp and an atonal croon, Gargivolo relies on changing inflection rather than melody in his lines, and the vocals sound monotonous and frankly odd as a result. To his credit, there’s some variety in his vocal delivery—he often changes intensity, and “Human vs. Machine” and “Amphibian to Chameleon” have bridges that, for some reason, suddenly become melodramatic—but all are similarly awkward.
In the end, Infinite Measure, Finite Existence is a nice collection of riffs and leads, but falters as an entire package. If you simply want to hear ten tracks’ worth of guitar playing that draws upon the technical metal of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, be my guest—I wouldn’t blame you, and the record would certainly deliver. But I’m sure Jester Majesty is capable of more. Gargivolo has proven his riff-writing chops and command over his guitar. With a more explorative approach to songwriting and a dedicated drummer and vocalist, the band could put together something fully realized and quite compelling. Until then, I’ll happily return to the canonical bands that pioneered the style decades ago.
Recommended tracks: Human vs. Machine, When Numbers Speak
You may also like: Control Denied, Cryptosis, Ursawrath
Final verdict: 4/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Xtreem Music
Jester Majesty is:
– Alessandro Gargivolo (guitars, bass, vocals)
– Erymanthon Seth (lead guitars on “Human vs. Machine,” “Echoes of ∏,” “Married to the Masterplan,” “Masquerade (The Algorithm),” and “Amphibian to Chameleon”; keyboards)
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