Freeman --- Labyrinth --- 2005 (Arise)
Sometimes you just take a chance, you know, and you don't even know why? I can't recall what made me pick up this album. I knew nothing of the band, had heard none of their material, but something recommended them, and I decided sure why not? Turns out they're Italian, though they certainly don't sound it, and damn good too. They've had seven albums to date, of which this is the fifth. Weirdly, the one prior to this was called “Labyrinth”! Doing a Genesis on it, eh?
The opening track is called L.Y.A.F.H, which you quickly find out stands for “light years away from here” --- why they didn't just call it that is beyond me. What, are they being charged per word or something? Anyway, it's a great opening, power progressive metal with big keyboards, chunky guitar and the clear, powerful voice of --- well, here's where it gets a little weird. Again.
Each band member (or most of them) seem to have two names. In their Wikipedia entry there's a name for each with another bracketed beside it. Perhaps it's to make names which are a little hard to pronounce/remember easier. So the vocalist is called Roberto Tiranti, but also goes under the name of Rob Tyrant (good choice of name for a metal singer), while the guitarists are Andrea Cantarelli, or Anders Rain, and Carlo Andrea Magnani, aka Olaf Thorsen. The keyboard player goes under Andrea de Paoli, or Andrew McPauls. Only the drummer and bassist have the one name, Alessando Bissa for the former and Segio Pagnacco for the latter: poor old rhythm section, short-changed again eh?
I can only assume that the double-names are to make it easier for marketing outside of Italy, as the bracketed, or second names are all fairly anglicised, and though some bear a resemblance to the original, I don't know where Olaf Thorsen comes from! But anyway, for the purposes of this review I'll use the shorter, or second name, for each member. For those who have them. Avoid confusion and less typing for me, so that I can pack a lot more in to my exciting life that would otherwise be wasted adding extra words to this journal entry!
It's a good opening, very powerful and very melodic, then things slow down a little for “Deserter”, which comes in on acoustic guitar but then gets going with a heavy riff and crunching vibe. Rob Tyrant's voice is VERY far up in the mix here, to the extent that sometimes the music drops back to a point where he's almost singing acapella. But when they're given their head, axemen Olaf and Anders can rock out with the best of them, with the keys a little subsumed in the mix, at least on this track. There's some of that annoying “death vocal” in the song too, but it's very much backing vocal, so not as annoying as I usually find this. I can handle this with bands like Leaves' Eyes, and it also happens with LostProphets, but as far as Opeth or Dimmu Borgir go, a little of that is all I can take and if the vocals are ALL screamed and growled that way, I hit STOP and then DELETE.
But there's no need to worry, as Tyrant is a very accomplished vocalist, and like many European metal acts, he does not come across as sounding Italian; if anything, you would think he was head of some US band, with that somewhat universal sound. “Dive in open waters” is pure thrash metal, with drummer-with-only-one-name Alessandro Bissa pounding the skins as if he just saw a horrible insect crawling on them and is trying to kill it, the twin guitars setting up a wall of sound that, this time, kind of overwhelms Tyrant's vocals a little. Perhaps a small toning down might have been in order, as the poor guy has to shout to be heard above the apocalyptic cacophony setup by the band. And again, I can barely hear the keyboards: you there, Andew McPauls? Oh yeah, there you are, doing a rather nice solo. Fair enough, but when the guitars take over it's like you fade into the background. Someone needed to sort out the production of this album. One minute the vocalist is on his own without backing almost, the next it's hard to hear him. And as for Signore McPauls....
The song ends really strangely, fading out very quickly like a badly-done single edit, and we're into the title track, great hook and very commercial-sounding but yet very heavy. These guys have almost got the balance right, if they could just ensure the keys are pushed a bit more up in the mix, as I'm sure old Andrew is doing some great work there, but most of the time it's hard to even hear him. “M3”, a song about the BMW M3 sportscar, is a suitably fast rocker, with the keys finally allowed to shine through and sounding really excellent, the twin guitar attack taking on a very Iron Maiden feel. A lovely little piano passage halfway in adds real character to the song, then there's a tremendous guitar solo from one of the two axemen.
The Maiden influence continues in “Face and pay”, with a certain Metallica edge in there too, and a great bluesy midsection where Andrew McPaul finally gets to really show what he can do, but it's the creepily excellent “Malcolm Grey” that steals the show. The longest track on the album, at six minutes, it starts off with what sounds like a car crash, weird howling sounds and footsteps, creaking doors and rain lashing down. It's introduced musically by Andrew on beautiful piano before the guitars get in on the act and we hear the tale of a killer who tells us
”My hands are red with blood/ But it's not mine!” followed by a nasty laugh.
The piano keeps an eerie counterpoint to the guitars as the song progresses, with some really great keyboard in there, proving that when allowed to, Andrew McPaul is as capable on the ivories as anyone. Rob Tyrant does a great job portraying the face of a killer who seems not to remember what he has done --- a split personality probably, as he asks, pleads really
”Can someone tell me/ If it's true or not? /I'm scared by the pleasure I've felt.”
“Meanings” is a good ending to the album, with again nice keyboard and of course the ubiquitous heavy guitar, though you kind of feel that after “Malcolm Grey” the quality dipped towards the mediocre for the rest of the album, and there's not a lot that marks any of the final three tracks out for me. That said, this is a very good album, and although I don't know whether Labyrinth are known much outside their native Italy, they certainly should be. These guys can hold their own with the best prog metal out there today.
TRACKLISTING
1. L.Y.A.F.H
2. Deserter
3. Dive in open waters
4. Freeman
5. M3
6. Face and pay
7. Malcolm Grey
8. Nothing new
9. Infidels
10. Meanings