Shining Fury - Last Sunrise

*=Staff's pick	Intro Broken Hopes 060501 Sleepin´ Coma Snake´s Game* Last Sunrise Memories Speed Of Life Declaration Of A Cheat Net Love* Rosanna

Genre	Power Metal	Francesco Neretti	Vocals
Tracks	11	Tommy Pellegrini	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	Francesco Chelini	Guitar
Label	Metal Blade	Alessandro Cola	Bass
Release	12 Jan. 2004	Ross Lukather	Drums
Country	Italy	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Labÿrinth, Athena, Vision Divine

Shining Fury hail from Italy, and was formed in 2001 by drummer Ross Lukather (Labyrinth, Athena, Death SS) in order to "create fast and melodic songs", in his own words. After joining teams with, among others, vocalist Francesco Neretti (Athena) the work began on what now lies before me as their debut album.

This does not impress me at all. In fact it is so standardized and packed with clichees and standard arrangements, both vocally and guitar wise, that only a few songs are more than enough to make me lose interest. In midtempo they fire off one unpersonal tune after the other, with occasional ups and down in speed. The sound is "typical" Italian as we have gotten used to hear it the past years, but the production is weaker and thinner than most of the their collegues and the good ideas does not last for more than a couple of songs in total. The rest is fill-outs.

The slightly slower and heavier Snake's Game is a song that alone is reaching a level of around 8 chalises or even above, but that is unfortunatly the only one. It's remarkable that a song like that is the best one when the aim was to play it "fast and melodic". A part of this albums weakness is that the fast songs are not really fast, and the melodic elements are not really easpecially melodic. Everything seem to be stuck in some kind of gray zone in the middle and nothing stick out.

If an anti-power-metal person would start a discussion with me claiming that bands in this genre of metal all sound the same, do not have personality, are boring and just ramble on with double kegs and sleazy singalong refrains, and held this album in his or her hand as an exanple - I would have absolutely nothing to defend myself with. The evidence is undisputable.

Reading a press statement about this album is pure and utter humor: "The band spent months adding arrangements and special touches to the songs, which resulted in a rich, complex album, which will carry the torch for European power metal from now on." Perhaps one of the most misguiding descriptions in many a moon. Turn the statement to the opposite, and you are closer to the truth.

Nice try guys, but.....forward march and hurry back in the rehearsal room again.