The Princess' Day

Skylark was one of the pioneers of one of the sub genres that used to reign back there in the late nineties and the dawn of the new millennium: symphonic power metal. Yes, that fruity and often flowery genre that was popularized by no other than Rhapsody. After Turilli and Co. succeeded in mixing heavy metal with orchestra, several bands added more and more layered instruments and choirs to their records in order to try to achieve what the Italians had achieved before.

Skylark grew up as a little brother of their aforementioned country mates and this is their 5th LP. They play an extremely fast and uplifting kind of power metal and the music is super catchy with each and every one song having an ultra happy-poppy chorus. The main composer and keyboard player, Eddy Antonini, made sure his instrument was very loud in the mix so we all can hear how great he is. But, he’s indeed very talented and his harpsichord lines are very well executed.

The production sucks big time. The guitars are completely watered down, the bass is inaudible and the drums sound like they were made with a machine. Second, Fabio Dozzo can’t sing. Well, maybe he can sing opera, but not heavy metal. His upper range sounds like he’s seriously being hit many times in his balls. When he sings in his mid range he’s decent, but ruins the show when he tries to hit the highest notes few men can hit. And don’t even get me started with the lyrics...

I must admit though that Eddy Antonini is a very good composer and pianist and the solos are extremely well done both in the guitar and the keyboard department. Even the bassist adds some tasteful solos in a couple of tracks. There are some songs that are really enjoyable, like the opener “The Princess’ Day”, with its pounding double kicks all over the place, track two “I Will Cry Tonight” (stupid title, I know...) and the song “Symbol of Freedom”. The latter even shows some progressive tendencies with multiple tempo changes and a dramatic atmosphere. The overall songwriting is quite good mostly because the guys know how to play their instruments.

But the lead vocals of Mr. Dozzo are always out of tune or poorly mixed. I’m not bothered if sometimes a singer uses falsetto to reach some notes if he does it good, but this is too much.

If you enjoy fast drumming, then this album is for you. There are double kick drums everywhere and it makes you wonder how a human being is capable to play that fast. In the beginning sounds appealing, but after a while it starts to sound monotonous and fake.

This CD is not thrilling but neither completely bad. As I said some songs can be very enjoyable cause they’re are well crafted and every one of them has a very distinctive chorus of lyrical nonsense. Recommended for fans of the Italian metal scene and for the nerds who thinks rescuing a princess on a winged horse is still cool.