| CD REVIEW Symphonity |
 |
|
Band : Symphonity Hum...it's true that not a lot of bands out of former Czeckoslovakia have broken through to the international level in the Metal music scene, even if Czeck guitarist Libor Krivak has been working on his career since 1994, when he started the band Otter with mainstay drummer Tomas Sucharek. After several years and many line-up changes, the band eventually took on the ill-chosen (because there must be bands by that name in just about every country) monicker Nemesis. An experienced singer was found with Vilem Majter, and it's with him that the band (actually the trio of Libor, Tomas, and Vilem) records its debut album Goddess Of Revenge, which not only gets picked up by Italian label Underground Symphony, but is also issued in Japan on Hot Rockin' (with the obligatory bonus track, of course) during 2003. That same year saw the addition of keyboardist Ivo Hofman to the line-up, which was completed the year after with the joining of bassist Tomas Celechovsky. That same year the band started playing their first gigs outside their home country, but at the beginning of 2005 the drummer decided to leave. Luckily, a replacement was soon found in Martin Skaroupka, and later that year the band was offered the chance to open for Nightwish at their gig in Zilina. Although the band was now on their highest level and things were definitely on the up, the singer decided to quit during the writing sessions for the upcoming sophomore album, and that with demo recordings of a couple of tracks already done! It was time for some changes for the better, and so the guys dropped their name (possible fans had too much trouble finding info on the Internet about the Czech band anyway) and went for Symphonity. Libor contacted former Dionysus and Luca Turilli singer Olaf Hayer to do the vocals on the upcoming recordings, to which the latter agreed. But the German born singer did much more. Evidently, when you know that both Nemesis (and Symphonity, of course) dabble in Symphonic Epic Power Metal (Libor prefers to hear the term "Melodic Metal" because it gives the band more freedom to take influences from Progressive and Neo-Classical, as well as trying their hand at well-known covers from other musical areas – read more about that later), a link to German based Limb Music Products (which, as you should know, is specifically geared towards that kind of music) was quickly made, and the label readily offered the German/ Czech alliance its support through a recording deal (and famed producer Dennis Ward for a recording and Sascha Paeth as mixing engineer). As a direct result, Hayer is now a full-fletched member of the band indeed! Well, I've already dropped a line about the band's musical direction in the former paragraph, so let's not try your patience by repeating on that. Let's just say that elements of Progressive and Neo-Classical are well balanced, as are the more up-tempo passages with their racing guitars and atmospheric/ orchestral keyboards founded on the pounding rhythm section...(take a breath here, what a long sentence) against the calmer parts where occasionally the individual musician may shine through. Notable is the 10-minute "The Silence" cut in three seperate tracks as a trilogy, the first and last acting respectively as (instrumental) intro (and a moment for the keyboardist to shine) and outro (a sorts of reprise of the intro tune, but with spoken word on top of it to end the song's story). Although album closing instrumental "Afterlife" is listed as lasting only 53 seconds, the counter on the cd-player says "6:01", and enigma solved when after some 50 seconds of silence, the band come along with a very nice cover of Nena's "Irgendwie, Igendwo, Irgendwan", done with mixed German/ English lyrics and brought in a way which preserves the original tune while getting a slight touch of Symphonity as well (by the way, the cover also sees Herbie Langhans of Seventh Avenue as guesting extra singer). Besides of all that, I think the guys are currently either looking for or breaking in a new drummer, because there's none mentioned at the band's MySpace! Check out the band's music from the 5 song samples they put up at myspace.com/symphonity. The label claims Symphonity easily attains the level of established acts such as Stratovarius, Edguy, Rhapsody, Dionysus, and Sonata Arctica, but while Libor is pleasantly complimented about such comparisons, he also feels the band should be taken on its own merits. In any case, if you are a fan of the aforementioned, dó check out this German/ Czech (get the pun?) act by occasion, okay? Oh right, American citizens will have to wait until September 8 to find the album in their local record stores, and in Japan the wait will be even longer, because there the Marquee/ Avalon version of the album has a street date of October 22...of course, the Japanese wíll have two bonus tracks (pre-mix versions still featuring the band's former singer). 87/100 Tony. |