Starbreaker seems like a brand new outfit, and it is, but while the name might be new, don't let that fool you, the musicians within are very familiar in a warm and comforting way.
Tony Harnell is by far the star of this show, his pipes bright and sometimes quite thick, a divergence from his usual delivery, but if you think Harnell can only handle
TNT type fluff, then this will change your mind permanently.
Guitarist Magnus Karlsson is on hand to wield the axe, and does he ever do a swinging killer job of it. You can just feel the power pulsating from each bend of the string, and he makes for a showy yet grounded guitar player that has style and crunch and mixing the two worlds together for a special sound that's hard to pinpoint. This is definitely his finest work yet, beating out his performances on the trio of Last Tribe albums he has been involved with.
John Macaluso is no stranger to Harnell, having worked with him for the "Realized Fantasies"
TNT outing, and is a rhythm machine. His drumming drives this disc home with its urgency and time clock accuracy. Having played with such a diverse blend of artists ranging from the demanding Yngwie Malmsteen, to the power and glory of
Riot and the progressive Ark, he's proven himself time and again, and adds much to this album as well.
Frontiers current go-to man, Fabrizio Grossi also makes an appearance, but rounds out the rhythm section by handling the bass and tinkering with the production as well. This is a departure from the norm where he usually contributes by showing up with his crack team of musicians that sweep in and take over all aspects on the instrumental side of things. Nope, this time it's just Grossi, who does an admirable job on the thumpin' bass guitar and plays the producer role fantastically. The mix is excellent, Karlsson's music and Harnell's vocals are blended together in a cosmically perfect harmony, letting the vibrance and energy shine through. .
But a word to warning for those that see Grossi and Harnell's names listed here and might mistake this for another
AOR type project, this is anything but. In fact, the closest match would be
Jorn Lande's latest outlet for his metallic side - Masterplan. The music is crunchy and undoubtedly metal of the heavy type and a European polish that makes this sound even sharper and unique. If you are too entranced and under the spell of melodic rock, this will shake your foundations and wake up the neighbors, but for the curious that are firmly on the
AOR side of the fence, this is a golden opportunity to broaden your horizons a bit and become coaxed free of those old
Journey records. This is the perfect stepping stone into heavier territory.
The disc busts open with a charged and in charge track by the name of
"Die For You" that rocks with pulsating excitement. Harnell's voice brushes with the gritty and the raw, much like his brooding performance on
Westworld's "Skin", but he blasts back into glorious melodic blissfulness in no time at all. The ethnic musical bits make this one feel like something a little bit special, and give it flavor and a taste of the harder exotic, while some distortion on the vocal tracks at times lends it a modern-esque metal flavor as well.
"Lies" is a rocker with a power punch that packs a wallop with its chorus that jumpstarts itself into seas of flowing melody but with a biting message. The rest of the song is fairly by-the-numbers, but has a dash of modern with a lil twist as guitars and tempo aggressively compete against one another. This is a nicely groomed song with many strengths such as a catchy chorus and a harder yet accessible sound that trump its weaknesses. This is the most obvious single of the bunch.
"Break My Bones" is very much
Westworld again, but with the cutting edge of something much rougher around the edges like Masterplan. Tony is very growly here at times, putting a deeper, gruff inflection to his voice, but also soars with the angels as he is so capable of doing. He's like a dual personality, half a creation of light and seraphic, the other angel with wings tipped with darkness. The track also follows along the same lines, teasing the listener with
AOR-esque moments and then slamming their eardrums into the next millenia with waves of sonic assaults. He bleeds in this song too, the vocals dripping down to pools of swirling and crunchy guitars.
"Crushed" could have been snipped from
TNT's often tragically forgotten modern tinkering experiment, "Transistor", at least for most of the verses and the straightforward chorus. The sublime guitars that electrify and intensify the situation are straight from the bowels of heavy metal bliss however.
"Transparent" may just have the most combustible chorus of them all, which arrives with a sweeping feel admist the dizzying hard rock stylings that encircle it.
"Days of Confusion" as a song is not confused at all. It has a rather starkly melodic identity with some spectacular guitar melodies. Some of the riffs sound giant and fat, simple yet brimming with emotion, and the piano laced within is darkened and sets a rather disturbing mood.
"Light At the End of the World" is another special cut with a Savatage-like pompous piano tinkering opening. The song itself rips it hard and is quite a nice one to kick back to while letting your speakers attempt to blow themselves up.
"Underneath the Fallen Sky" is another spectacular track that again is like a melding between late 90s
TNT and Masterplan. The chorus is also pure
Westworld, drenched with melody but still keeping one toe in the modern pool of things. The contrast between the murky crazy heavy verses and the plushy powerful
AOR chorus is absolutely a taste of heaven. A precarious balance that could have ended in musical tragedy, manages to come out a wonderful triumph in these skilled hands.
The only two bumps on an otherwise perfectly smooth road would be the tedious instrumental
"Dragonfly", which makes a decent example of prowess but does nothing really for itself as a song. There's just not enough there to keep you coming back for more, and the structuring is poorly done for an instrumental piece, which has to be handled differently to be listenable and effective. The other one is the closer
"Save Yourself" which does nothing to separate itself from the tracks that have come before and is basically a by-the-numbers rocker that fills like filler, which it likely indeed is. However this one is also quite the rush, as it is a track that bristles with intensity and with more repays it becomes more exciting. It just doesn't seem to come at the right point in the album, thus diminishing its impact.
One point I would like to make with this CD is the fact that it is copyright protected, which means you cannot play this thing on PCs. This made writing this review quite a challenge for me since two of my setups that I use for writing reviews are PC fueled. If you put "
Starbreaker" in, it will only read it as a data disc, and while it does come equipped with an rather worthless interview, and a music video for
"Lies", this is not enough to make up for the fact that you cannot listen to this on a computer. I know that record companies are wanting to curtail the rapidly spreading trend of pirating, but ahoy matey, this is not the answer at all. It makes people who do not usually dabble in such activities, want to, simply because they are blocked from using the CD on the equipment of their choice. It became a major inconvenience, and while personally I cannot see knocking the album's score for this complaint, since it doesn't affect the quality of the disc itself, I just want to warn potential buyers that like me, use a PC as their primary listening outlet, that this will be useless to you.
Other than that tirade however, this album is quite a treasure indeed. The songs might seem a little similiar at times, but with multiple listens, they each begin to identify themselves as standout individuals with their own unique quirks to love, such as the ethnic musical flurries on the opening track for example.
Starbreaker as a band has alot of experience in the rock and metal world and it shows with their tight performances topped off by polished production. I do believe the closest relative to
Starbreaker would be Masterplan, since they share the same kind of vibe and heart of heavy steel, but you couldn't ask for a better lovechild of modern rock and classic heavy metal than this album. It's right up there with "Aeronautics" in every aspect and is a promising opener for this new but yet seasoned band. May there be more in the future to come!
Written by
Alanna Thursday, April 21, 2005
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