2006-03-28
Stormbringer is an Italian band that was formed late in 1998 with a vision to combine Thrash melodies with Doom and Hard Rock. Somewhere along the way that dream was tossed away, and when the guitarists were changed and a keyboard player was added the band turned to Power Metal.
The current line-up consists of Jessica Cavati the singer, Emanuele Zinnanti the guitarist, Gabriele Colombo on keyboards and piano, Simone Zinnanti is on bass and Mauro Lovato is the drummer.
This album is their first, and they have a lot to learn, as it appears.
The band is trying to prove it is ready for the big stage, but I'm not impressed.
The first songs, “Heavy Metal”, “Red Moon Rising” and “Arrogance Man”, are mediocre and their sound quality is not of the highest standard.
As for the music, they're good, particularly Emanuele and Mauro; Gabriele and Simone kind of disappear in the back, and as far as Gabriele is concerned, it's a real miss, because the faint sounds he does produce show a great sign of potential.
As for the structure of the songs, the band opts for a strange structure; they're pretty long, between four and six minutes, but as long as they are the band still couldn’t find a proper ending for them, especially when we hear “Obey” and “Arrogance Man”.
The melodies are nice and pleasant, flowing between the gothic and the Power Metal-ish tunes with a hint of Speed Metal.
The vocalist, Jessica, hasn’t decided what she wants to be – it's obvious that an operatic voice would tag her and her band as a
Nightwish/
Within Temptation/
Lacuna Coil clone, so she doesn't use that voice at all. On the other hand, she's not using a shrieking or growling voice; She chooses to sing like a male vocalist from a typical European Power Metal band. If that's how the band wants to sing their songs, one must ask why not use a male vocalist in the first place, and add Jessica to the mix later.
“Death And Soul” joins the list of nice songs that won't live long in your memory, and ends with a few words by Jessica with no music in the background.
Then, a quiet intro comes along, and it is nice and pleasant; Naturally, I figured the next song would be connected with the intro, but what you think and what you get are pretty far apart.
So the next song, X, starts as if there was no intro; Still, it is a contender for the nicer song of the album title, along with “Death And Sou”l.
“X” has a surprise in the middle – a short growl that adds a new dimension, and a future direction, that in my opinion, the band must explore.
“Life In Oblivion”, another nice song, shows the potential of Emanuele, with his nice solo and the rhythm he produces to accompany the songs. The song was supposed to show Mauro's ability, but due to the poor sound you can't hear the drums well, and it's a shame.
After this short song the longest song of the album comes, a track called “Mistery”. A lot of melody, the keyboards receive some spotlight and you can hear them well, and at least three pieces combine into one melody. After a two minute break a really surreal piece begins. It sounds like a victory celebration of trolls in a pub, and it's funny but ends the album well.
Nir Haviv
