Never heard of Disarmonia Mundi before? Well, I’ll be... Then you’re not a fan of Soilwork either, I suppose? No? Well, that would explain a lot.

For the heathens among us, Disarmonia Mundi is an Italian melodic death metal band that features Björn Strid (Soilwork) on vocals, as well as the other members of the band. The reference to Soilwork wasn’t just because of Strid’s appearance in the band, but also because the music – in all fairness – isn’t much different, either. Maybe it’s just mental image imprinted in my head, but Strid’s presence almost forces me to think of Soilwork with each and every song that is featured on the album. Not that this is a bad thing; on the contrary.

The Italians know how to capture the essence of the Scandinavian melodic death metal style very well and the melodies are proof of that. It’s not just the guitar riffs, but also the multi-layered vocals that make for the trademark sound. Speaking of which, there are a lot of clean vocals on this disc. It does remind a bit of Killswitch Engage too in that aspect.

Disarmonia Mundi doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but who cares? Aggressive and then melodic at times, The Isolation Game is a perfectly decent album for every fan of Scandinavian melodic death metal from Italian soil. Forget about the weird syntax of the former sentence and just go and buy this album.