| CD REVIEW Myland |
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Band : Myland You know, I could've sworn I'd come across this Italian Melodic Hard Rock band before, but after a check it turned out I was completely wrong! Weird, because the cover artwork of the band's previous album (July 2008's No Man's Land, released through Italy's Valery Records and distributed by Frontiers Records; got picked up by a Japanese label and re-issued with exclusive bonus track “When The Love Is Gone” in June 2009 – the song a collaboration with former Toto singer Fergie Frederiksen, by the way) looked darn familiar to me. Ach well... Main power behind Myland is drummer Paolo Morbini, who's performed with plenty of cover and original bands in the Milano area since the '80s (among his more important tenures are Eva, Exilia, and Bruno Rock). In the early '90s Paolo worked at the Musical Academy (I'm sure the original name got lost in translation), where he met brothers Stefano (keyboards) and Marco Andreasi (guitar), who shared Paolo's passion for AOR and Melodic Rock. From time to time, this trio together with Paolo's old buddies Guido Priori (vocals) and Adalberto Rizzoli (bass) could be found gigging in various venues, playing covers of Toto, Journey, and Survivor songs. At a certain moment Paolo (whom to date has more than 2,400 shows to his name) decided to record an album's worth of original material (written, arranged, mixed and produced by himself) under the Myland monicker. Mind you, at that moment the band was still a side-project, each and every member equally occupied with his own band(s). Debut album The Time Is Over is released in 2004. Partially composed of material written in that same period, Paolo then distills 2007's follow-up No Man's Land, which gets contributions fro several greats in the music business (check: guitarist Kee Marcello, check: guitarist Tommy Denander, check: keyboardist Alex del Vecchio, check: Italian Metal hero guitarist Steve Angarthal...those big enough for y'all?). This album is then picked up by Valery Records, who work out a distribution deal with Frontiers, etc... (see first chapter). Something then must've gone wrong with the original cast of this side-project, as the only remaining member from the old lot is Paolo...the rest of the band composed of guitarist Hox Martino (hum...where hàve I heard that name before?), keyboardist Davide Faccio, bassist Fabian Andrechen, and lead singer Franco Campanella (somehow that name seems familiar as well). As you can hear by listening to the songs (3 off the new album, 4 plus the Japanese bonus track off the 2007 album, and 3 more off the debut) posted at (www.) myspace.com/mylandrock, Myland carries its influences close at heart, without ever becoming a clone, and what with Campanella hardly displaying any accents, the album is that more enjoyable for lovers of the genre. The other guys in the band give the lead singer plenty of harmonic backings, which only makes for a higher sing-along factor. Yeah...check it out! 88/100 Tony. |