Cydonia - Cydonia
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The King* |
| Genre | Power Metal |
Dan Keying
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 9 |
Steve Sguario
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 47 Min. |
-
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Guitar
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| Label | Metal Blade Records |
Trevor O’Neal
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Bass
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| Release | 19 Feb. 2001 |
Mat Stancioiu
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Drums
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| Country | Italy |
Lee Crow
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Keyboards
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| Similar artists | Labÿrinth, Vision Divine | ||
Once again we have before us a band that origin from the land of pizzas, opera and wine - in short: the good things in life.
And what these guys have to offer, my friends, is no exception.
Even though they aren't playing it in the common "Italian"
style as we are used to hear it (meaning fantasy/operametal a' la Rhapsody),
we are here beeing served some high quality standardmetal.
And I don't say "standard" in a negative tone - it's just
that they do what is expected from a album to be consider good - nothing
more, nothing less.
As usual when it comes to the Italians they show themselves
to be very good musicians, and here the guitarplaying Steve is bending
his strings with the honours.
He's delivering good, catchy riffs all along throughout the album, even
though it is starting to feel familiar in the riff/songarranging/chorusarea
with new italian bands nowadays. There is way more than a couple of
times I hear Vision Divine in this, but if it's Cydonia that is extremely
inspired by Vision Divine, or if it's the other way around - that I
am not the right man to judge.
But as long as they are doing it good and with style,
than I don't feel like it's something to discuss further.
We don't hear a truckload of solos flying around here, announcing and
rounding off every bridge, chorus or interlude - there are a few here
and there, but the solos that are played are good, and are showing that
Steve master that part too, so I hope to hear an increase in that area
on the next album.
As usual I have a very hard time to differ one Italian singer from the other, and I don't know if I ever will learn to, but they are all very good singers - Dan Keying in Cydonia is no exception.
The production is overall good - perhaps just slightly
thinner than what we are used to with their fellow countrymen, and they
lack a little of that compact, pompous sound.
But I have a feeling that that is not what they are after here, and
that could be a good thing for them, cause that means the line gets
a little more distinct between them and their mentors.
We have to wait until the 9th and last song before the compulsory ballad shows up, and well - let me just say that in this case it's one too much.
It's that little extra that is missing here - can't really
put my finger on it, but perhaps it's the fact that they are stepping
into the realms of the Big Boys from their homeland a bit too often,
plus that they are not taking advantage of the ideas they pick up from
there.
It goes on in a good tempo throughout the album, but it just never really
takes off to those skincrawling heights.
Don't get me wrong - it's very good.
It is definitly worth to check out for all of you that are into Vision
Divine, Labyrinth or wellplayed metal in general, and I certainly will
listen to this album for a long time to come.
As long as you are not expecting more than a good album
in general - this won't take you by storm..... just satisfy your yearning
metalneeds for the evening.
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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7 |
7 |
7 |
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Summary
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7 chalices of 10 - Tommy |
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