Album Review: Ice of Neptune – Shots and Dollars

Shots and Dollars is the electrifying sophomore album from Italo-Greek metal outfit Ice of Neptune.

The follow-up to 2021’s Mr. D sees the band take a more conceptual direction, at least in terms of the overall theme of the album. The band have said while their debut focused on what they “were living through the pandemic, wars, fear, uncertainty and the fragile hopes of that period,” Shots and Dollars instead looks to the past for its inspiration.

More specifically, the nine songs bring the listener on a journey through the gangster era of the 1930s, one that was full of danger, violence, and glamour, something that Ice of Neptune really grasps within the lyrics. It also feeds into the artwork connected to the album, noirish, rain-swept and lit with primitive neon, very much evocative of classic works of Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, as well as the movies that were inspired by his works.

You can visualise Humphrey Bogart or Jimmy Cagney within the lyrics, or the dark witticisms of Sam Spade, or Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man series of films, bursting out from the highly descriptive and emotive lyrics.

Shots and Dollars takes you sequentially through scenarios that typify the gangster genre. Opening track Interrogation is just that: a pulsating drum capturing the spirit of the Jazz Age as the song’s protagonist reveals that his is the end of his journey, even as ours is just beginning. The tension within the song is relieved by the sense that the players are being played, leaving you wanting more.

Think of that as the opening scene in an opera, as Ice of Neptune takes us through the childhood, rise and fall of the protagonist as he goes from foot soldier to leader of a gang conducting robberies. Like a Greek tragedy, hubris and desire lead to his downfall, often focusing on his attempts to escape his destiny, glamour given way to grime, and eventual capture. There’s more to the story – that you’ll have to hear for yourself, because, well, no spoilers.

Ice of Neptune explore these stories against a musical backdrop that owes something to symphonic metal and gothic rock, much in the style of Avantasia, Nightwish, and Ayreon – full of passion, working on immense canvases even as they tell us the story of one individual.

Shots and Dollars was released on the 31st of March and is available to stream on Spotify. Mr. D can be downloaded on Bandcamp. Catch up with Ice of Neptune on Instagram to learn more about the album and the people behind the music.