The Power of Existence

This band was something of an accidental discovery for me, as it came into my possession with the impression that it was an early work by the Italian power metal band by the same name who gained fame at around the time this outfit split up. They are labeled as power metal, but they more closely resemble a heavy metal and progressive rock hybrid with elements of Deep Purple, Rush, Scorpions and mid-70s Black Sabbath. So anyone who was hoping for something either of the current crop in Europe or US power metal acts like Queensryche and Sanctuary will definitely want to look elsewhere.

The general sound of this band tends towards a free form of 80s heavy metal, heavily utilizing the capabilities of all the instruments in a very loose arrangement. Most of what is on here is comparable to Rush’s “Hemispheres” and a little bit of “Permanent Waves”. Steve Cavoli’s vocals mostly resemble Stryper vocalist Michael Sweet, though he was probably trying to get something closer to Geddy Lee. Considering that he was also the drummer, however, it is pretty impressive that he can sing and keep time while doing all of that complex drum work.

These guys definitely put together a good technical display, as every song on here has an extended solo section loaded with obvious Alex Lifeson worship. Simultaneously there is often elaborate bass work and drum turnarounds, giving that sort of wall of sound approach to instrumental sections that was popular in the 70s prog rock scene. The principle problem with the format that this band has chosen though is that these songs tend not to be too memorable, particularly since they tend towards the free form style of later Dream Theater than the conventional song structure approach that Rush maintained through their career. The song on here that best typifies the sound of this band and manages to maintain a sense of catchy simplicity is the title track, which sounds a little bit like a lighter and less well produced version of something from Fates Warning’s “Perfect Symmetry”.

As far as recommending this to anyone, this album is extremely hard to come by from my understanding and it’s probably not worth the trouble it would take to find it. It listens well enough, but it doesn’t really have a whole lot of staying power. I’d recommend spending more time getting familiarized with Black Sabbath’s Ozzy albums and Rush’s 70s work, both of which provide better examples of how to throw in a lot of ideas and still have something that is reasonably accessible to the long term memory.