Milan band TheGrado hits the ground running with their debut five-song demo. On the album the band gives a nod to their days as a cover band—when they were playing songs by Italian artists like Litfiba, Negrita, and Timoria—but prove they’re on to much bigger things. Full of promise, the new demo is a perfect fusion of the band’s Italian rock roots with classic hard rock attitude. With its brash message of independence, underlaid by the chug of distorted power chords, the opening track “Libero” definitely sets a punk rock tone to the album. Throughout the album they maintain this air of punk, from the simplistic drumming to the punchy bass lines, but manage to deliver a much more sophisticated sound, as evidenced by the complex riffing and superb soloing on “Alibi”. They contrast their edginess with slower and more melancholic moments, like in “Nell’anima”, which adds a good balance to the album and gives the band an element of intrigue—as opposed to the fully-sexed up “Dangerous Game”, whose AC/DC-like riff is a total ode to old school hard rock. The EP was recorded in November 2013 at Musical Solutions in Milan. The founding guitarists Gerry and Diego are joined by Gianni on drums and Seba on bass to complete the current lineup of the band. TheGrado took their high adrenaline, hard rock tunes to the stage in Milan making it all the way to the semifinals of Emergenza Festival Italia. Check out Emergenza.net for more info on the band.