Evillot

Nestled deep in the murky underground of 90s power metal revivalism is one of the most curious phenomena to ever bear the genre title. Not so much curious because of their originality, though there is actually some of that to be found given when the band came about, but because of how poorly they realized what little potential they had. The institution that is Power Symphony can be described as a grab-bag of folk, melodic, operatic, neo-classical, doom, speed, and thrash metal; but most of it centers on the quirky, grating, utterly forced vocals of Michela D’Orlando. For any person with any level of familiarity with this band and any love for the genre they claim, her exploits are a matter of infamy, often dismissed as a poorly conceived attempt at accomplishing what Elise Martin did with Dark Moor, but more rightly so as the equivalent of a goat choking on barbed wire.

Nevertheless, there is a unique, albeit cult-like attraction to be found in this band’s debut “Evillot”. Being of the lower grade persuasion in its production, it’s an album that brings up imagery of the subterranean resistance to the tyranny of alternative rock, be it the frostbitten low-fidelity work of the Nordic black metal explosion, or the other various independent bands out there that didn’t make it during the death metal craze of the mid 90s. Such music stands on its merits, absent a stellar independent production job which was far less common then than now, and here we see a varied approach to derivative music that is not without some element of charm. But whereas this band’s more infamous follow up “Lightbringer” (which solidified their status as the laughing stock of power metal) was an exercise in one-dimensional redundancy and uninspired flatness musically, this album tries so desperately to be varied and individualistic that it has little actual identity to speak of.

The songs on here are quite long and loaded with contrasting ideas, to the point of resembling one of those strange rehashes of Dream Theater’s “Awake” that were common at the time, but communicated through an older traditional metal lens. When listening to “Battles In The Twilight” and “Shores Of My Land” the dominant image is an Amazonian take on Manowar’s mid 80s work, but relying a lot less on repetition and narrated sections and more on divergent riff sets. The cookie cutter approach to chorus emphasis that is common to Rhapsody Of Fire worshipers (a category that this band is sometimes put into, though it’s difficult to figure out why) is downplayed, though there are discernable chorus sections that are somewhat catchy, but often fleeting. The former is loaded with Black Sabbath influences in the riff department, the intro in particular reminding heavily of “Children Of The Grave”, and is arguably the best song this band has ever committed to recording, even when not accounting for D’Orlando’s overdramatic and awkward singing.

As the album further unfolds, things go a bit downhill before taking a really substantial nosedive at the end. As the Celtic influences give way for occult-oriented ones on the title song, so too does the half-hearted “Sign Of The Hammer” influences give way for a really poor attempt at emulating early 80s NWOBHM songwriting. The riff work meanders like crazy, sometimes conjuring up images of mid-80s Satan or Mercyful Fate without the charm of either, and the attempt at darkened atmospherics gets utterly comical. The intro riff to “The Curse Of Every Man” literally gets within striking range of plagiarizing Megadeth’s “Symphony Of Destruction”, while the rest of the song largely wanders aimlessly trying to sound like something completely different. In essence, that is the general drive of most of the songs on here. And after a rather pointless 3-part song that differs little format wise from the 4 previous songs, the band decides to churn up the cheesy 80s satanic nonsense to full intensity by recapping the folksy closing to “Battles In The Twilight” for about 2 minutes, then putting in almost 10 minutes of dead silence before putting in some really stupid sounding ambient noise with backwards speaking at the end. Newsflash Michela and company, you don’t worship Satan, you don’t pull off faking it well, and should have just cut this pointless joke from the entire listen and settled on a 5 song album that would have been mediocre at best.

To the prospective buyer that wants to spend his money wisely, avoid this album, and just flat out avoid this band. Outfits like Star Queen and Sinergy, both of which tend to get far more hate than this band does, are better than this in spite of being even more derivative. How these hacks ever got signed to a label is utterly beyond comprehension, though the year that this was released did mark the heaviest saturation point of new bands calling themselves power metal. Truth be told, this isn’t a power metal album, even by the loose standards employed today that include a number of AOR influenced and industrial sounding bands. This is a horrid attempt at revisiting a time when power, speed, thrash and doom metal were all still joined at the hip under the broader title of heavy metal, it doesn’t come close to living up to the standards that it sets for itself, and has the distinct honor of being fronted by a vocalist who could potentially have done more damage to the image of metal than Fred Durst had this band gained similar mainstream attention. Yet ironically enough, speaking for myself, I occasionally make time to listen to this once in a while, for the same reason that I have taken to watching bad 80s Sci-Fi flicks like “Robot Holocaust” and “Breeders”, because something this bad can actually have a level of charm, particularly in that the person doing this was actually seriously trying and revealing their talentless nature in the most obvious way possible. Or maybe I’m just a weirdo who thinks about these things too much, take your pick.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on April 01, 2011.

Power Symphony closest resembles a symphonic power metal with a very capable female vocalist Michela D'orlando. The rhythm guitar is usually fast, melodic and well done most but not as repetitive or speed intensified as typical power metal musicians. Keyboards are used sparingly and with very, very good taste. Michela's vocals are definitely the cornerstone that differentiates Power Symphony from legions of power metal bands that sound eerily similar. Not the greatest female vocalist but her passionate, melodic vocals with very slight hints of occassional aggression and obvious flare for power metal vocal stylings suits this music to a tea. Not too mention the memorable operatic vocals of Inferno Suite.

Mixed emotions on the lead guitar aspect. A few are questionable but many including one at the 4:30 mark on Battles of The Twilight is outstanding. The inclusion of many at least quality lead harmonies is great! Power Symphony has surely not watered down the sound because of their vocalist and turned this into an overly accessible pseudo symphonic metal band. They are the real deal.

This album suffers a bit from poor production quality which would be improved on their excellent follow up Lightbringer. As stated before this album has an epic impact with its longer, drawn out song structures although I feel it has been limited by the fairly poor sound quality which most bands creating epic music do not possess. All slight debut album quirks aside, this is a very interesting debut album and a refreshing change from the regular power metal bands who sound too similar for comfort. If anything, I would recommend this album or Lightbringer just to hear how this underrated female vocalist works with legitimate metal musicians. Its energetic, appealing, very catchy but I wouldn't go as far as calling it commercially viable for the masses. Could appeal to any power metal fan all the way to anyone who enjoys excellent melodic female vocals. The album is very solid and best heard together but there are select standouts(mostly towards the end of the CD)

Favorites : Battles in The Twilight, The Curse of Every Man,

Power Symphony, symphonic metal that appeals to power metal fans (and symphonic metalfans alike) rather than being straight-up power metal. The power metal influence can be heard, although most of it can be seen as heavy metal epics with a definite keyboard presence.

A female vocalist as a novelty, as she doesn't sound like the castrato's you come to expect with Italian power metal bands. Her voice is forcefull, almost unto being off-key, but overall pleasing to hear if it doesn't turn you off. You could liken it to ZnoWhite's Nicole Lee on Act of God in that respect, although Power Symphony's Michela D'Orlando sings in a totally different style. Michela also manages to sing operette-style to my suprise, which comes across odd when the two vocal styles are done over eachother.

I said the songs were heavy metal epics, and they are quite..epic. Four songs ranging from 6:30 to 8:14, and a 3-track song totalling over 15 minutes. These songs all involve long build-ups with recurring themes/riffs and an infusion of new elements over time. With the instruments providing a solid foundation, the vocalist gets a lot of free space to do her thing in. Oft layers of vocals are used, with her doing both 'normal' and operette-vocals over eachother, mixes background chorus with singing-lines, and I even spotted a male (Opera-type) singer in between.

The production is slightly flat, as if done in a studio that doesn't have the necessary capacities. The instruments and vocals sound rather seperated from eachother, but as the music is still a coherent whole this creates a rather interesting effect; as if the music has a broad basis from which it is built. This effect is mostly lost on later efforts.

The production makes the guitars sound a bit held back, but it's wielders' ability is not held back, and time and time again we're treated with solos and riffs that help build up a song.

Overall, I really like this album, and can recommend it to power metal fans first, (epic, symphonic) heavy metal fans second. On this album, we're treated with the kind of straightforward honesty you get with young bands on the rise, that oft gets lost on later albums. (Sadly, Futurepast will in part show this)