Isolirion — Denied And Rejected Review
Isolirion is an Italian progressive metal entity. On 17 July 2025, Isolirion released its independent fourth full-length album, Denied And Rejected.
Isolirion, Denied And Rejected Review: This review will evaluate every aspect of the album, from its intricate musical composition to its production.
The First Three Sins, The Summary
The First Sin, The Strings/Keys: Aggressive thrash riffing, progressive structures, and expressive classical guitar studies forge an ambitious musical journey. The Second Sin, The Vocals: Raw thrash barks and cold spoken-word passages convey rejection, isolation, and emotional unrest. The Third Sin, The Percussions: Dry, controlled percussion drives relentless thrash rhythms with precision and discipline.
The Fourth Sin, Overall Discussion
A Solitary Return
Before embarking on this musical journey, one important detail deserves mentioning: Isolirion was once a full band, but with Denied And Rejected, the project now rests under the complete creative control of Roberto Merlo.
For those encountering the name for the first time, this is far from a standard solo endeavour. Instead, Merlo fuses sharp thrash metal foundations with expansive progressive elements, classical guitar studies, and daring experimental influences.
The Weight of Rejection
Lyrically and atmosphere-wise, Denied And Rejected explores profound psychological terrain — delving deep into themes of exclusion, rebirth, social pressure, emotional numbness, and the restless search for identity.
The result stands as one of the most diverse, deeply personal, and unconventional releases across the broader Isolirion musical discography.
Twenty Hymns, Two Journeys
While previous releases consistently stretched past the one-hour mark and split cleanly between standard hymns and instrumental pieces, Denied And Rejected takes a far more ambitious, structured approach.
Explicitly framed by the artist as a “dark and visceral concept album,” this expansive work spans twenty hymns and runs just under two full hours, divided into two distinct halves:
- The first half houses twelve standard hymns that drive the core narrative forward, unleashing thrash velocity, progressive shifts, and visceral vocal commentary on social pressure and emotional numbness.
- The second half pivots entirely, delivering a dedicated suite of classical guitar studies that showcase Merlo’s technical discipline and acoustic finger style articulation — balancing raw metal aggression with meticulous formal composition.
Thrash Reforged
The devilmanship and compositional design — spanning both instrumental performance and broader musical architecture — are consistently well crafted. Seamlessly connecting to the broader Isolirion lineage, Denied And Rejected shifts away from the progressive-riff dominance of La Notte Dei Sensi, making a return toward the thrash-avant-garde roots established on early works like Outer Heaven and Warped.
Roberto Merlo’s guitar work combines aggressive thrash-leaning rhythm foundations with precise palm-muted riffing, raw mid-gain crunch, sudden meter changes, and dissonant chord clusters. Supporting this complex framework, the bass guitar is mixed closely alongside the guitars, acting as a unified layer that injects immense physical weight directly into the riffing.
Voices Within the Machine
The drum battery across Denied And Rejected carries a dry, precise footprint. Whether programmed or performed, the percussion remains tightly controlled throughout, driving relentless thrash tempos and rapid double-time snare work. Fronting this aggressive rhythmic grid, Roberto Merlo delivers a raw vocal attack centred on harsh thrash barks, intercut with cold spoken-word and declamatory vocal passages.
While synthesisers are omitted from the arrangement, the record generates a deep background atmosphere through alternative methods. Merlo layers low-frequency drones, subtle ambient hiss, and industrial noise beds beneath the guitars.
The Raw Chamber
The production across Denied And Rejected carries a raw, home-recorded austerity from beginning to end. Built on close, dry, and deeply intimate soundscapes, the recording deliberately avoids modern studio ambience or artificial polish.
Every instrument — from the harsh thrash riffing to the delicate classical guitar studies — is captured with a stark, unvarnished clarity that reinforces the album’s central themes of personal isolation and emotional vulnerability.
When the Fire Falls Silent
Overall, Denied And Rejected is a fruit of art that values artistic conviction above accessibility. Rather than ending with spectacle, the closing eight instrumental studies gradually strip away the aggression established during the opening half, leaving only intimate acoustic reflections.
Instead of functioning as bonus material, these pieces feel like the emotional aftermath of the record’s central struggle — quiet, restrained, and deeply personal.
The Fifth Sin, The Memorabilia
For me, Denied And Rejected proved to be a stronger experience than La Notte Dei Sensi, though it still does not quite capture the consistency of Outer Heaven or Warped. The return to thrash metal immediately felt more engaging, yet the songwriting remains uneven across such an expansive running time. Certain hymns leave a lasting impression, while others simply pass by before the next memorable idea arrives.
What continues to impress most is Roberto Merlo‘s willingness to challenge himself creatively. Rather than repeating previous successes, he constantly experiments with structure, instrumentation, and atmosphere, and even when every decision does not fully resonate with me, that fearless approach deserves genuine respect.
Unpleasant Human Form and Fontamorlock stood among my personal highlights, while the closing acoustic studies offered a thoughtful and unexpectedly intimate conclusion. Even so, Isolirion deserves recognition for pursuing its artistic vision without compromise, regardless of where that journey ultimately leads.
The Sixth Sin, The Artwork
As Roberto Merlo states: The artwork visually represents the core themes of the album: solitude, abandonment, and the constant threats faced by anyone considered “different” or rebellious. The central figure stands alone, surrounded by symbolic hostility — a metaphor for how society often targets those who do not conform to its expectations.
The cover summarises the emotional landscape of the album: isolation, resilience, and the courage to exist outside imposed standards.
The Seventh Sin, Disrelish
My principal criticism lies not with the devilmanship, but with the album’s immense structure. Running for just under two hours, Denied And Rejected occasionally struggles to sustain the same level of engagement across its full duration. Individual hymns certainly reward repeated listening, yet as a complete experience the record can become demanding, allowing some otherwise compelling ideas to lose their impact under the sheer weight of the album’s duration.
The Hymns
01. Mysrical Forest
02. Get out of the Mud
03. Reborn Again
04. Libertas God
05. The Patriots
06. Freezing Eyes
07. The Dream Begins Again
08. Is This a Joke?
09. Schizoid Disorder
10. Deamination
11. Unpleasant Human Form
12. Fontamorlock
Hymns 13‐20 are classical instrumental studies (Rejected 25‐32)
Isolirion
Roberto Merlo — All Instruments, Vocals, Lyrics
