| CD REVIEW Alkemyst Fanatix special: Necromid - Panic Room - The Blacklies - Winter Haze |
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Alkemist Fanatix Europe special #3 As you may know (from having read the previous two Alkemist Fanatix Europe specials’ intros, I first intended to review the albums which we were sent according to catalog number, then found out the numbers did not follow a chronological time line as far as release dates go, and eventually reverted to the trusted alphabetical reviewing. I have to say, that method now sees me bringing this (temporary) closing special with rather a happy face, because àll of the band’s in this 3rd special are of a constant high quality, even if playing somewhat different styles. I won’t divulge too much yet about their differences, but here’s a short-list of the band’s in this special: Necromid from Imperia near French border, Panic Room & Winter Haze from Parma (middle of country, roughtly in the middle of Milano & Bologna, and in the middle between Genova and Venezia), and The Blacklies from the Tuscany region (in essence, Tuscany is the region laying against the Appenine Mountain range and starts just South of the coastal town of La Specia in the North. Going in-land and Sounthwards, the important towns are Lucca, Prato, Firenze, Arezzo…from there roughly going back to the coast and the peninsula at the Laguna Orbetallo, and going back North via the coast…including also the Isle of Elba, and not forgetting the unforgettable town of Pisa!). -------------------------------------------- In April of 2003, drummer Christian “Cry” Tallone and lead guitarist Gionata “Jonny” Giribaldi founded this band with the intent to play a Metalcore mixed with Melodic Death and Thrash Metal influences. Following the usual period of line-up changes the Imperia (North Italian coastal town, situated a good 40 kms from the French border) based band eventually stabilised with a membership including (besides the two already mentioned) singer Antonio “Sesa” Sessa, rhythm guitarist Luca “Tuccy” Bertoni, keyboardist Luca “Kermit” Alberti, and bassist Peter Benini. In 2005 the band entered their hometown’s Ithil World Studio, and came out with their first demo. Although it showed the band’s progress from their beginnings, the guys weren’t really happy with the sound they got, and so they began a collaboration with Dario Mollo (of Voodoo Hill and The Cage fame), whom also owns his own Damage Studio in Ventimiglia (Coastal town some 6 kms from the French border, so very much in the band’s hometown’s vicinity). Under his guidance the band recorded two further demos in the next 3 years, demos which (along with the many concerts the band played in their province of Liguria) would attract the attention of the people at Alkemist Fanatix Europe…with the usual results of record deal singing (with UK Division Records) as ultimate result. So, the band returned to Damage Studio from April to August 2008, and recorded the 10 songs that would compose their label debut. To elaborate on the band’s sound (because “Metalcore with elements of Melodic Death and Thrash Metal can take one so many ways), it’s best to imagine that musically the guitarists bring a nice melodic and slightly down-tuned Heavy Metal with Progressive touches with very nice lead and solo passages. If there’s indeed any keyboards played within the songs, they are for the most part drowned-out by the guitars. All of this happens on a very steady rhythm basis, which is not without merits. Both drums and bass not only bring the foundation for the others to work on, but also bring in separately discernable melodies, adding to the Progressive feel of things. Making the difference, is the vocal department. Both the lead singer and one of the guys occasionally doing back-ups vomit the lyrics out in a Hardcore style…which justifies the band’s claimed Metalcore leanings. The singing style is important in the general acceptance level of the band, because it prevails the listener from noticing the band’s origins. At least, it would, if the guys hadn’t added the somewhat balladesque “Remember The Day” halfway through the album. Although the accent ain’t half as bad as in the case of some other bands managed by Alkemist Fanatix, it becomes clear that Sesa’s native language ain’t English the moment he opens his mouth for the moaned intro (a style continued throughout the rest of the song, axcept for the backing singer shouting/ screaming his merry head off). One rather positive thing that needs to be said to counterbalance this little mistake, is the band’s covering of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” as an album closer. Two thumbs up for that one! Hum…looking back on what I just wrote, I suddenly come to the understanding that, in order to get a good idea of what this band sounds like, you’d actually do much better surfing to myspace.com/necromid, where you’ll find no less than 4 songs off the album! As you can see from the dating of the release in the caption above, I’m not sure exacly when the album was out on the streets, but from reviews being posted in the blogs section of their MySpace, I would guess it would’ve been in the latter part of the year. In January 2010 the band released their first official video-clip (for the album opening track “Great Death Show”). One good advice if you’re into Melodic Death Metal or Metalcore: check this band out as soon as possible! 95/100 -------------------------------------------- Not to be confused by the Portuguese Brutal Death Metal act by the same name (who’ve left us, as far as I know, 4 demos and one EP to date, the latter dating back to 2006), nor with the female fronted Welsh Alternative/ Experimental Rock band (who’ve already released two albums since 2008), this Parma based North-Italian sextet (consisting of singer Francesco Liuzzi, guitarists Rocco Cortesi & Marco Mambriani, turntables and synthesizer handler DJ Seth, bassist Simone Pilato, and drummer Matteo Taglioli) had been goin’ through life as Redrum (not exactly original) since 2002, when in 2008 they decided to change both styles and name! Now we certainly could argue about the originality of the name, but what concerns the music the guys already recorded during April of 2008 at Pisa’s West Link Recording Studio (in a co-production with Ale Paollucci) it cannot be denied that they bring an interesting amalgam of Melodic Contemporary Rock/ Metal with some additional fringes from the DJ, his contributions (including occasional samples) ranging from atmospherics to scratching, over Industrial touches. The question at this moment is whether he’s still part of the band, because I don’t see in the line-up mentioned in the line-up at the band’s MySpace anymore. Hum? Yeah, what with the slight down-tuning on the rhythm guitar you might indeed dub this a Nu-Metal band, for sure! For once, we get a singer whom doesn’t need to shout/ scream his guts out (which doesn’t mean that there ain’t some aggressive vocals on the album after all) to nót reveal his native origins. In other words, the singing is as good as from an English or American band. Not surprizingly, the band got some very good to excellent international responses, with website lordsofmetal.nl not only interviewing the band but also naming Panic Room as “Band Of The Month” for July 2009. A reaction which I deem to be everything but exagerated, and you can convince yourself of the same by listening to the three tracks posted at myspace.com/panicroomworld. The 11-track, near 42-minute album comes in a great digipack package which is simply sublime and…darn, here’s an album deserving to be put into my year-lists retro-actively!!! 98/100 -------------------------------------------- Apparently this Tuscany based Nu-Rock/Metal band was originally formed when the members were still in high school, with singer F. Thomas Ferzetti (whom would also handle piano, keyboards and sequencers whenever necessary) and drummer Salva Labella remaining as the founding members. Following a couple of years of hard work, recordings of demos and EPs, numerous live appearances and changing line-ups (in spite of the perseverance of the singer and drummer), the band eventually finds its ultimate line-up in 2005 with the joining of guitarist Emiliano Mammini and bassist Francesco Rossi. The year after they participated in the Lucca Summergiovani music contest, which they won in the categories “Best Band” and “Best Guitarist”. Having accomplished that, the band started working with sound engineer & producer Nicola Baronti at Lucca’s City Music Studios to develop the songs into what would eventualy wind up on their debut album. The actual mixing of the material was then handed over to Dillon Gallagher (check Mika, James Blunt, and even Kylie Minogue) whom did his job at London’s New Brittania Row Studios. In 2007 D’Alessandro & Galli Productions organized the first of what would become one of Italy’s more important annual events, namely the Lucca Summer Festival, and invited to play there The Blacklies took this as a perfect opportunity to test the new material. Seeing the response the material got from the audience, the band then put every effort into finding the correct label to release their album to a wider public. Which of course they found with Alkemist Fanatix Europe and British allies UK Division Records (and leave it to me to only mention to you that, based in Newport, South Wales, the label was started up in 2006 by one Luca Quattrin with the primary aim at that time to promote Italian bands on that side of the Channel). Having been able to give the album multiple listening sessions, I disagree with some music journalists when they say this band does not rise above the grey average! True, the material definitely needs to be played several times before one gets the underlaying niceties. With the down-tuned guitar, which is oft played with a somewhat thrashing sound (cool, you know, I love it) into which surprising lead stuff seeps through, a bassist whom plays his bass occasionally as a replace rhythm guitar, all the underlaying electronic additions (through either sequencer or synth) giving the whole a futuristic and occasionally Industrial touch (especially since occasionally you also get spoken words sound samples thrown in at the bottom end), and the rare bit of piano, there’s really a lot to discover here...things which the casual listener might very well lay aside, when not made attentive to ‘em. On top, there’s the singer, bringing his vocals in a slightly moaning mid-high pitch. I guess he also does part of his backing vocals, because occasionally the second voice resembles the lead a bit much. If that ain’t the case, my hat goes off to the backing singer, whomever he is! It’s hard enough to find a singer sufficiently fluent in the English language to be able to divert the attention of his native tongue, but to have to of such singers in one and the same band…wow! I don’t know why, but I was occasionally reminded of Radiohead, and in the more futuristic songs even of Babylon Zoo (even if the vocal pitch is somewhat lower here, there’s an equal orientation in the futuristic keyboard sounds – remember BZ’s hit song “Spaceman”?), but even through those remeniscences the band very much has its own identity, because they’re not really trying to actually resemble said bands (see what I mean?). really the best way to discover this band is to have the CD played on a loop for a couple of hours (it can be played 3 times in two hours), preferably through headphones, and while occupying yourself with another job (like looking up info on the band, taking pictures of fossils you’ve found, or some hobby you might entertain in yoour free time besides listening to music). I guarantee that by the third time you’ll be humming the majority of the songs, even sing along with some. Of course, you don’t have the album at hand to do such a thing, but at myspace.com/theblacklies you’ll find the band has posted a total of 5 tracks off the album. They also posted 4 songs off 2009’s EP Sorry But I Feel So Bad (including not only a radio edit of the title track and an alternate version of album closer “Go On Flyin’ You Crazy Angel”, but also the album version of my favourite track My First Day On Earth” and the completely new “American Life”). Hum…I lóve this band, so I guess I’ll be checking out whether I can order that EP, next time I give the record store one of my regular visits. So, check that out, a second band in this special getting a retro-active year-list placement! Yeah…Groundfloor may be almost two years old, but I am personally overwhelmed with joy that Alkemist Fanatix Europe sent us a package large enough to also contain this! 98/100 -------------------------------------------- Without elucidating of how the event came about, the biography of this Parma based female-fronted, keyboard-driven Symphonic Power Metal band (with influences from Gothis and Progressive) states that Winter Haze was founded from a meeting of singer Giorgia Marra, bassist Lorenzo Solazzi, guitarist/ backing singer Raffaele Albanese, and keyboardist Stefano Bottarelli. In the beginning there were a couple of in-and-out going drummers (one even left only 4 days before the band was supposed to do their premiere gig…which was therfore post-poned), but the band had nevertheless found their songwriting unit and with the arrival of Davide Colombo they finally completed the line-up in 2004 (it’s with him the first gig in Reggio Emilia, on July 12, was undertaken). In September 2004 the band makes some low-budget home recordings, and an early version of the track “White Witch” ends up on the OndeRoad compilation (sold out long since) in the first months of 2005. In December 2004, the band recorded their first real demo Innocent Dreams (besides the title track it also included a better version of “White Witch”, plus the tracks “From Here To Eternity” and “Neverland”), which they eventually release in August of the following year. Throughout 2005 the band plays a multitude of gigs which draws the attention from people both in and not in the music business. Also, in July of that year, Colombo leaves and Matteo Rossi (who’d been in several bands, ranging from Metal to Prog Rock, both as a drummer and keyboardist) takes over his spot behind the drumkit. In August 2006, the band enters Old Ones Studio with Giulio Capone (3 albums with Bejelit, now also a member of 5th Element – see further) to record the 10 tracks that were to be the make-up of their debut album The Storm Within. The band was able to rely on the participation of violinist Stefano Quaglia, cellist Gaia Feerri and flutist Federica Chiappori to give some of the tracks a more organic feel (evidently, in live conditions those sounds are incorporated in the keyboardist’s work). Giorgia herself apparently even added the sounds of some sax somewheres on the album. Later the album was mixed by D. Mandelli at his Elfo Studios. At the same time the band keeps up its live activities, managing to play support slots for the likes of Domine, After Forever, and Paul Di’Anno. Eventually, the band got in contact with Alkemist Fanatix (and hence UK Division Records), and after a mastering by Mika Jussila at the famed Finnvox Studios, the album eventually saw the day of light in the Spring of 2009 (in Italy it was already released in February). The resulting 48 minutes of music aren’t bad at all, in fact they’re a nice time to pass (a couple of times in a rown even). Giorgia has a nicely warm but sometimes slightly heady high pitch (not too high), and occasionally tries to emulate the soprano style of singing (which is something that does nót always come off quite as it should, perhaps). The clean backing vocals emulate her tonality, which induces a harmonic feel in that department…but there’s also a couple of occasions where a slightly graver voice is used (like the whispered passages in “Deconstruction Of Mind” and the graver vocals in “Darker World”), and for the album closing “Neverland” (sound familiar? Yeah, and the other songs on the Innocent Dreams demo are on the album as well!) you get a male/ female mixture of Operatic vocal passages. Midway the album, you get a speedy instrumental with the short (just under 2 minutes) “Event Horizon”, bringing a calmer passage (if that does that sounds contradictory, keep in mind that there’s no vocals to gear the listener’ss attention from the music) on the album. Regretfully, at the band’s official website myspace.com/mywinterhaze, you’ll only find mp3-files for two songs…but they’re fairly representative for what the band offers! In December of last year Albanese left the band to concentrate on his solo project 5th Element (which looks likes it’s growing out to a real band situation). Undaunted, the remaining 4 members started auditioning guitarists, and found a more than suitable replacement in one Paulo Menozzi. They also reviewed the male backing vocals situation, and decided on having Matteo doing the clean vocals and Stefano doing the graver vocals in order to replace the vocal duties previously performed by the exiting Raffaele. In May of this year the band delivered their first video clip for the track “Unme”. A new version, by the way, recorded with the new guitarist. Currently, the band is finishing work on a bunch of new songs, and they will soon return to a studio to record a demo for their sophomore album. 90/100 -------------------------------------------- Tony. |
