When Reality Is Nothing

The story of Simone Fiorletta’s music is really the story of Moonlight Comedy, minus about maybe 35% of the heaviness and with no vocalist. While his older project focuses on a much more intellectualized version of heavy metal, loaded with complex riff changeups, aggressive singing and a sound that leans a bit towards what you’d hear out of Outworld, this project could be described as lighthearted by comparison. Comparisons could be made to Joe Satriani’s showy yet singing melodic affect, with the occasional nod to Dream Theater and Patrick Rondat here and there, resulting in a sound that is charming and entertaining, though perhaps not the deepest and thought-provoking of listens.

The first and last impression that “When Reality Is Nothing” leaves is one with the lion’s share of the influences coming from the progressive rock realm, with just enough traces of metal to have something that can be classified as hard edged. It’s literally just heavy enough to pull past the likes of Presto Ballet and enter into John Petrucci territory. The guitars, particularly the lead based ones, dominate just about every crevice within this band’s occupied space, save the occasional keyboard solo or sparsely placed drum or bass fill. The music itself just grooves along like a typical blend of formulaic rock with the occasional jazz ballad reference here and there, never even considering trying to upstage the guitars.

Everything that is heard on here is basically solid, lead happy, mid-tempo rock that is enjoyable enough, though perhaps lacking a good amount of staying power and not quite standing out much from each other. The exceptions are when the music cuts loose along with the guitars, which happens here and there. The two top examples are “Dance In The City” and “Ehy…What’s Up”, both of which provide a bit more punch in the riff department and sound closer to metal, rather than kind of hanging out on open chords with the distortion on and letting the leads completely dictate the motion of the song. “Oh No, Not Again!” breaks out from the pack as well by being a lot faster and more busy, essentially melding speedy jazz with chunky sounding rock riffs and plenty of crazy lead passages for all the 250 notes a minute enthusiasts.

This is generally geared towards fan of melodic rock music rather than heavy metal, particularly those who really got into the lighter side of Dream Theater explored on “Falling Into Infinity”, though with a more humble keyboard presence. It’s not the best thing that I’ve heard out of Simone Fiorletta based on his work with Moonlight Comedy, mostly because it doesn’t really get nearly as adventurous. It’s content to stick with what works, and although it tends to play things a little safe, it will probably appeal to more people than your standard Steve Vai album.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on September 12, 2009.