When you get Serenity frontman Georg Neuhauser and Temperance guitarist Marco Pastorino, get together to form a band, you can expect it to be full of melodic/power metal mastery. The two met on tour together with their respective bands and realised they had lots in common musically so they recruited drummer Alfonso Mocerino and bassist Gabriele Gozzi to form a live band. The four piece set about recording this debut album.
It's a power and melodic metal all the way as Georg and Marco fuse both of what their bands do, along with some of the greats of the genre. Terranova is also the first song on the record, a rollicking power metal track in the Sonata Arctica that's actually about drug addiction, the sobering spoken word section at the end, almost undoing all the bouncy upbeat music before it. Thankfully the darker riffing of Now And Forever, brings us back onto the pumping power metal train, Mocerino's drum beats adding to the anthinic quality of this track, it's the third single and the one that blends both of the band leaders style well, with the gutsy metal riffs met with AOR choruses.
Broken Dreams is pure AOR fluff, with a lot of the European style of bands such as Brother Firetribe or Eclipse, giving a bit of metal riffing to what is otherwise a Eurovision-pop chorus. Broken Dreams is also one of the songs where Marco gets to show off his excellent vocals with some co-leads with Georg and as part of three part harmony with bassist Gabriele. To The Top does the same thing with a muscly ballad, as the acoustics come in for the torchlight sing along of I Can't Stay.
It's not long though before those galloping early Sonata Arctica sounds come back on Destiny with a nautical themed piece of adventure metal and the rampaging Bound To Our Legacy. You can hear that the core members of Fallen Sanctuary share a love for melodic power metal as Terranova has influences drawn from the best making it a delight for fans of melodic/power metal. 7/10
Chaos Magic - Emerge (Frontiers Music Srl) [Finn O'Dell]
Frontiers Music is at it again, this time giving us the new album by Chaos Magic. Confession time: I am very partial to female vocals. This band has the amazing Chilean vocalist, Caterina Nix, who appeared on Timo Tolkki's Avalon album, Angels Of The Apocalypse, in 2014. The next year, Tolkki, the guitar virtuoso of Stratovarius fame, wrote, played guitar, bass & keyboard as well as produced the self-titled debut of Chaos Magic. The band has evolved some since their debut 7 years ago, but they still fit nicely into the genre of symphonic metal. The album leads with the title track, a balanced rocker, whereas the next track, Beneath Your Skin, is quite heavy while still maintaining a faint symphonic sound.
Chaos Magic - Emerge (Frontiers Music Srl) [Finn O'Dell]
Frontiers Music is at it again, this time giving us the new album by Chaos Magic. Confession time: I am very partial to female vocals. This band has the amazing Chilean vocalist, Caterina Nix, who appeared on Timo Tolkki's Avalon album, Angels Of The Apocalypse, in 2014. The next year, Tolkki, the guitar virtuoso of Stratovarius fame, wrote, played guitar, bass & keyboard as well as produced the self-titled debut of Chaos Magic. The band has evolved some since their debut 7 years ago, but they still fit nicely into the genre of symphonic metal. The album leads with the title track, a balanced rocker, whereas the next track, Beneath Your Skin, is quite heavy while still maintaining a faint symphonic sound.
The Impossible has a little more keyboard present and Caterina's voice is angelic as ever. The next song, Garden Of Winter, is a duet featuring Elina Siirala of Leaves' Eyes. Their voices complement each other beautifully on this slower jam with a robust chorus. Hearts Gone Dark, maybe my favorite track, brings that more up tempo sound with ethereal elements. Beyond The Silence sees the band cranking out another great standard of symphonic metal. Days Of Lions opens with some Arabian sounding music before rocking out. In The Depth Of Night follows with more metal to rock out to, then Victims Of Our Heaven slows things down and sees Nasson (bass) sharing the vocal duties with Caterina and it sounds amazing.
When If Not Today picks things back up before the closer, What's Your Fuel - another rocking song. This album is one I can easily listen to all day, between the mostly upbeat metal and the silky voice of Caterina. Highly recommended. 10/10
Iconic - Second Skin (Frontiers Music Srl) [Finn O'Dell]
Frontiers Music has a history of somehow having some unique "supergroups" of sorts, but they have really outdone themselves with their latest release. Iconic has legends all the way around from some of the biggest names in the world of hard rock: Nathan James (vocals/Inglorious), Michael Sweet (guitars & vocals/Stryper), Joel Hoekstra (guitars/Whitesnake), Marco Mendoza (bass/Twisted Sister) and Tommy Aldridge (drums/Whitesnake).
Iconic - Second Skin (Frontiers Music Srl) [Finn O'Dell]
Frontiers Music has a history of somehow having some unique "supergroups" of sorts, but they have really outdone themselves with their latest release. Iconic has legends all the way around from some of the biggest names in the world of hard rock: Nathan James (vocals/Inglorious), Michael Sweet (guitars & vocals/Stryper), Joel Hoekstra (guitars/Whitesnake), Marco Mendoza (bass/Twisted Sister) and Tommy Aldridge (drums/Whitesnake).
It's like the hard rock hall of fame, or something. Fast As You Can opens this album with thundering rhythm and more hooks than a commercial fishing vessel. Nathan is the primary vocalist here, but Michael lends a hand off and on through this one. Ready For Your Love is a rollicking jam that has a bluesy Whitesnake vibe. The title track sees another Nathan and Michael duet. All I Need is a rocking ballad that highlights Nathan's soulful singing. Nowhere To Run jumps back to hard rock heaven with riffs to bang your head to. Worlds Apart sees another ballad that has a little bit of an Alter Bridge vibe. All About bounces back followed by a slower This Way. Let You Go is another slower radio rock.
It Ain't Over had some upbeat riffs and Enough Of Your Love gets back to a bluesy laid back feel though the guitar solo here really pops. Overall, kinda disappointed by the number of slower tunes on here between ballads and blues. With an Iconic line-up, one expects some more hard rock offerings. Sometimes the parts are better with the whole they came from. Definitely worth a listen either way. 8/10
Devil's Train - Ashes & Bones (ROAR! Rock Of Angels) [Matt Bladen]
On the third album by Devil's Train, Mystic Prophecy frontman R.D Liapakis seems to wearing his cowboy hat too tightly as Ashes & Bones brings more country/blues influences than before. Firstly though let me just get something off my chest, this album ends with a cover of Word Up by Cameo, no one, ever needs another rock/metal cover of Word Up by Cameo, this version just sounds like the already established Gun version so it adds nothing to the record or the song itself.
Still despite this Ashes & Bones is a pretty good hard rock record. There's still a bit of a metallic hangover from the last two records but on this third act, Devil's Train have fully embraced the Whitesnake career trajectory they took on 1987 by becoming more Americanised in their sound. Ashes & Bones also owes stylistic similarities to Black Stone Cherry, The Dead Daises and a myriad of big Southern/blues tinged rock bands from the US of A. Songs about the devil, the blues, wild women and good ol' fashioned sex all make up the 11 originals here, Liapakis on fine form for songs such as Girl Of South Dakota, In The Heat Of The Night (I think Coverdale will want a word) and the title track, his husky croon adding grit to the music.
He's joined by Jörg Michael (ex- Saxon/Stratovarius) on drums, Jens Becker (Grave Digger) on bass and Dan Baune (Lost Sanctuary) on guitar, this revitalised line up adding to the more muscular and authentic heavy blues rock feel of this album. At times they veer a little too much into Coverdale smut (Smell Sex Tonight & Hold The Line) however for the most part Ashes & Bones is a big sounding heavy rock album. It just doesn't need the bloody cover song! 7/10
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