White Skull is an Italian based Power Metal unit and I have come to enjoy this concept album quite a bit. After some releases with female vocalist Federica De Boni, their new album features new man Gustavo Gabona in front of the mike with a rough and balanced vocal style that melts nicely together with their aggressive and yet symphonic music.
Lyrically the album is made up by different stories portraying historical episodes in relation to the overall theme of fanatic religion, especially the horrible Inquisition that took place in Middle Ages and the people that had to fight against it and died by it. The dangerous effect religion in general can have when used in the wrong ways is an important and quite interesting topic, even though there is some "repeating to the point of overdoing it", the concept succeeds.
The pervading dark and gloomy mood captured throughout the album fits very well with the whole theme, the epic keys being one of the strongest components.
The Dark Age represents the album from its best side, catchy guitar solo, groovy refrain passages, illuminating key tunes, tight bass delivery and cool rhythm changes.
Grand Inquisitor makes place for a spectacular dynamic lead guitar passage, lacking a bit of melody in the chorus though, Gustavo has a cool raw voice even though it comes a bit short when trying to create a more harmonious approach.
I am very impressed by the excellent guitar soloing on this record, the creative bass and the solid drumming is also worth mentioning; I like the drums the best when it challenges the listener with a more loose execution as in
Maid Of Orleans.
The sombre mood of
The Edict gets an extra aggressive twist with some really cool power riffing for once again to change form with the very melodic refrain.
Voice From The Heaven has some cool soft acoustic melodies but the flow becomes a bit trivial in length.
Devil's Woman is a heavy and fast cut that lacks that really memorable binding element to lift it to the next level
A New Handbook suffers from a simple verse structure and a monotone chorus line, pulling it in the other direction is once again the fabulous mid-section guitar adventure.
The tight but not very exciting
Sentence Of Death has an even more non-melodic chorus, and this aspect is the albums biggest general problem.
The short guitar driven
Theme For The Innocent ends things off with a cool and hypnotic atmosphere, showing great acoustic skills.
The Dark Age is characterised by an overall high standard of quality material with the first part of the album being the best, unfortunately that also means that it hasn't really got songs that stands out as amazing.
The production is reasonably good, some elements could be cleaner, but the overall sound picture is heavy and balanced.
Musically I have given some hints of what to expect, a closer listen will reveal some cool ingenious inputs, stressing that these guys know their stuff and a bit more too.
Conclusion: Not a breathtaking release but a nice collection of well put together Power Metal.
Written by
Tommy Sunday, January 16, 2005
Show all reviews by TommyRatingsTommy: 6.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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