| CD REVIEW Mistheria |
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Band : Mistheria I'd given this album a listen way before I'd looked up any info on it, and one thing that immediately struck me, is that there must be different singers! Of course, I was right, because Mistheria is not a real band, but rather the artist name of Italian keyboard specialist Giuseppe Iampieri...whom invited different (but somewhat alike in tonalities) singers and guitarists to join him on this, his second Progressive Neoclassical album. A small introduction to the guy? Inspired by the passion of his father (who'd studied the accordion under Maestro Marco Aurelio Pisegna, the latter becoming a close friend to the Iampieri family) Guiseppe started studying music at the age of six, and went to music conservatory at the age of 13. It's during the conservatory years that he started his career as a performing artist, both as a solo artist and as supporter of chamber orchestras. In 1995 he graduated with full honours and special mention! But Giuseppe had already spread his love for music outside of the strict Classical field, and for his first band Mirage (formed in the early '90s) the songs he wrote were in the Progressive rock stylings of the likes of Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, and other such inclined acts of those days (he'd bought all albums of the mentioned ones, finding an important inspiration from 'em for his further career). In 1994, Mellow saw a dream come true when Mellow Records released their album Frammenti. For Guiseppe (or Mistheria as he already starts calling himself) session work starts at the age of 18 with local bands and then tours throughout Italy with Pop vocalists and stage actors, the work occasionally seeing him perform shows on radio and television as well. Somewhere along the line he's subjected to the song “Trilogy” by Yngwie Malmsteen, and he falls hopelessly in love with the sound of it. The hopelessness coming from the fact that he's like to make such music, but doesn't play the guitar. Then he discovers the Roland AX1 (the so-called “keytar”) has paved the technological way for him to write exactly that kind of music, and he starts developing the playing techniques to enable him to emulate the sound of one playing guitar, helped along in that effort through the evolution of computer music and music software, and according to Giuseppe himself everything came together to perfection one evening in 2005. However, before that other things had already started happening to the charismatic keyboardist! You see, in the year 2000 he starts the project Viracocha, a band for which he writes his first Metal songs in collaboration with singer Cedric Vandeschrik, and the album The Beginning (released through Noise Records subsidiary label SonickAttack) sees light of day that same year. For several reasons (one the fact that the singer lived in South Africa) a second album never came about, but several songs off the album (some of which he's already written the instrumental parts for before) have become staples in his live repertoire. In 2001 he becomes friends with guitarist Neil Zaza, whom invites him on an Italian tour. Giuseppe then leaves his native country for a 3-month stay in Orlando, Florida...just to have the personal experience. During his time there he did some solo performances, and jammed with the likes of guitarist Rick Renstrom and singer Rob Rock. But then time came to return to Italy, as many concerts were already planned. Still, connections had been made, phone numbers and e-mail addresses were exchanged, and always having felt comfortable with collaborating with many people, he went about recording his second Metal-geared album, this time under his own surname. As a result, the 2004 Lion Music album Messenger Of The Gods had a guest-list to dream about: Rob Rock (he'd contributed on Rob's 2003 album Eyes Of Eternity, and would also play on 2005's Holy Hell, both albums produced by Roy Z), George Bellas, Matt Bissonette, Barry Sparks, John Malacuso, Anders Johansson, Neil Zaza, and many more (reàlly...look it up some time, eh?). The Roy Z connection would put Mistheria on the map on a larger scale, when he invited the keyboardist to collaborate on the 2005 Bruce Dickinson album Tyranny Of Souls. Since then, Mistheria has been session guest to many recording artists (besides on albums by Neil Zaza and Rob Rock, Mistheria was also featured on works by Book Of Reflection; Chris Catena; Winterlong – but thàt collaboration had already started in 2001; Tommy Vitaly; Angel Of Eden and quite a few others – for complete list, check the section “Discography” at (www.) mistheria.com), but in between he still worked on his classical stuff, releasing Soundtracks Of Our Lives (a mix of theater, Ambient, New Age, and movie soundscapish material) through Kaosmos Productions (I'm guessing that his own label, as it also released quite a bit of his older material) in 2006 and the exclusively piano album Solo Piano in 2007 (that one released through Videoradioand Rai Trade). So now there's this new Prog Rock/ Metal and Neoclassical album, and on top of a solid rhythm section consisting of bassist Alberto Rigoni (Twinspirits, Lady & the BASS) and John Malacuso, it features vocal contributions by John West (most prominently, on no less than 5 songs), Rob Rock (only on “Lies And Deception”), Lance King (on “Two Of Us”), Mark Boals (on “Metal Opera pt.1: Eye Of The Storm”) and one Titta Tani (drummer since 1993 and currently playing with of Goblin, he also sings with Ashent, and about 20 other Rome based Underground Heavy Metal acts). On the guitar we get, of course, Neil Zaza (although only for the song “Now It's Never”), George Bellas (him on 4 of the tracks), Roger Staffelbach (Artension, Angel Of Eden, on 3 tracks), and Emir Hot (Neon Knights, Southern Cross, solo artist with album on Lion Music, guitar on “Fire And Flames”). Quality musicians playing music written by a quality composer, producer, and accomplished musician...that can only result in quality music, right? Right! Somehow, I'm guessing Guiseppe, aka Mistheria also still played plenty of keytar on this album, with the “real” guitarists playing mainly solos! Anyway, to listen to some music by this guy you can either content yourself by listening to the two samples posted at myspace.com/mitheria (súcker!!!), the (usually 30-second) samples posted at the album's page on one of the trusted online sales websites...or surf to the “Video” part of the “Media” section at (www.) mistheria.com (some 12 showcases of the man's prolific play...on video...that's much better, ain't it?). 90/100 Tony. |