Band : Firestorm
Album title : Web Of Deceit
Label : Own release
Distributor : /
Release date : 17/05/2010
Release : CD

Debut CD by this Italian prog rock band. The intro is nice, the sound of a thunderstorm, and then you get some violins. And then along comes the real first track. What immediately striked me is that it sounded a bit "thin", you almost cannot hear the bass. As for the vocals, they're not really bad, but at times very, very high pitched, almost girlish.

As to the music itself, it's classical prog metal, no new ideas are launched, no boundaries are crossed, you have the obligatory tempo changes, but instead of directing the song into a new horizon after the tempo change, they pick up the old pace again, and merely continue. What is predominant in the production are the keyboards. Luckily they are very good. After a few songs however I get bored a bit by the vocals, but track number 5 is a completely instrumental track and does help to break the CD in two halves. But then along comes track 6, a real monster of a song, I've got no idea what direction they wanted to go with that song, but if I tell you it even ends with a "metalized" portion of the theme song of The Benny Hill Show you might know enough.

So with a better (greasier) production, better vocals and a better idea of which direction they want to go in, a next effort might get better critics.

60/100

Erik Morren.