Odyssea - Tears In Floods

*=Staff's pick	Intro Fly* The King Falling Star Burning Time Try Again Angel Cries* Tears In Floods pt. 1 (El Ultimo Canto) Tears In Floods pt. 2 (Miserable Man) Apocalypse pt. 1 Creatures*

Genre	Power Metal	Carlo Faraci	Vocals
Tracks	11	Pier Gonella	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Scarlet Records	Oscar Morchio	Bass
Release	04 Oct. 2004	Chris Parisi	Drums
Country	Italy	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Labyrinth, Vision Divine, Stratovarius

Pier Gonella, who plays guitar in Labyrinth, has Odyssea as a side project and it starts really good with the track Fly. It is melodic and catchy with great vocals from Rob Tiranti, who we know from Labyrinth has a great set of pipes. Musically it is not far from the now typical Italian power metal and Labyrinth is the closest comparison, yet with more detailed guitar work from Pier. But sadly Pier brings out the only real strong card he has in his deck right from the start and from here it is only a downwards fall in an Italian sounding power metal land.

The guitar playing from Pier is really good and he seems to be managing alright both with calmer parts as well as delivering scales in Malmsteen speed and in an neo-classical manor. But the work done with the guitar parts could also have been needed with the rest of the music as it seems to be have been left incomplete. The pace is often fast and the melodic music tends to be hum-along friendly at many times and also spiced with a few occasional heavy guitar riffs, and at the end of the day it is impossible to not hear that it is the Italian kind of power metal he's dealing with.

A strong voice can make up for weaker song material but with Odyssea this isn't the case. The vocals are not good and have a disturbingly nasal tone. It wouldn't have been a problem if Carlo Faraci had been able to hold a note but his voice falls out weak, just as much of the song material does. Even though Pier Gonella has managed to mix the Italian sound with a more Finnish one and even included tendencies of Sonata Arctica's excellent feel for melodies it never lasts for an entire track. The closing track Creature is perhaps the least Italian sounding track and has more of a Stratovarius sound, one of the few stronger points and also a step in the right direction and leaves you not completely bored after the album stopped spinning.

Odyssea is promoted as the best melodic power metal newcomer from Italy. Come on, give me a break. How many time haven't you heard that before, and how many times has it actually been true? And I cant agree on that statement this time either. Melodic and power metal is correct, and what goes for best then? If you think this is the best to come out of Italy you have a lot to discover, and must have been in a coma the last ten years or so. It has some strong moments but in general the material is too weak and the production is too thin, while the vocals from Carlo Faraci lacks in power to make this any better than barely average. The feeling I get with some tracks are that they are left over from Labyrinth and should probably never have left the demo stages.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	4	5

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Thomas