Scent of Human Desire

Somewhere at the tail end of 2002 there was a massive shift in the power metal paradigm, as the old epic approach was abandoned in favor of several other possibilities. In a sense, many bands who had first been possessed to explore the possibilities brought on by Helloween’s “Keepers” albums a decade prior suddenly began to discover the “Pink Bubbles Go Ape” era, underscored by its odd sense of stylistic misdirection. Like said album, many of the old conventions endured for a while, but were painted over with a quirky progressive outlook that affected the overall music, and also presented a non-fantasy approach way to lyrical presentation. Sometimes this method invoked serious non-fictional issues, at other times it takes on a somewhat awkward approach to humor, but the heroic exploits of fictional characters meet with the shelf and are replaced by an allegedly more mature/immature take on songwriting.

“Scent Of Human Desire” is probably among the more blatant examples of how this changeover was taken halfway by several bands, particularly in comparison to that of Edguy given the buffoonery that is tossed in alongside the more serious subjects. But Secret Sphere, although abandoning the old Italian scene of Rhapsody (Of Fire), is less drastically injured by the importation of this way of constructing an album than their German counterparts. For the most part, the album is presented in a serious fashion, in spite of the frontal nudity depicted on the album art. The music is detailed with a progressive edge that occasionally strikes at the sound of Pagan’s Mind, though with an emphasis on heavy guitar riffs that wouldn’t be explored by said band to this extent until “Enigmatic: Calling”.

For the most part, there is a prominent tendency towards slower, chugging riffs meshed with soaring vocal melodies. The atmosphere still retains some of the epic qualities of before, but the songs carry a somewhat somber and introspective tendency, not all that far removed from what Labyrinth was getting into at this time. The commonalities between Roberto Messina’s vocal character and that of Roberto Tiranti have essentially become uncanny now, as both seem to be drawing even more heavily from the early part of the Ray Adler era of Fates Warning. There’s still an underlying Helloween tendency to the melodic content and songwriting, but the more reserved double bass drum usage and darker riffing approach is seeking after something a little more subtle.

The best parts of this album are when the band keeps the sound straight up and avoids trying to be comical. “Rain” and “1000 Eyes Show” retain the band’s earlier epic sound to a small extent, but are noticeably slower and somewhat more restrained. “Still Here” and “Surrounding” take some slightly modern turns, but largely stick to a consistent formula of deep end grooves and straight up songwriting. Even the ballad work in “Scent Of A Woman” and “Desire” showcase a band that can keep everything together without losing sight of the generally dark focus of the album. In fact, the only places where the band really slips up is on “Virgin Street 69” and the 2 part closing song, where they forget about consistency and lay on a really poor mixture of comical lyrics and 70s rock influenced additives to the mix. This sort of goofiness fits a little better into unserious albums like “Rabbit Don’t Come Easy” and “Rocket Ride”, but here it comes off as wholly unnecessary and gratuitous.

Although this album is probably the most well known of Secret Sphere’s offerings, as it was very heavily promoted for a couple of years at the height of the genre’s popularity, this is the weakest of their offerings. It is something that could be worth getting when already possessing the rest of the band’s discography, but this could have been a lot better had a couple of these songs been replaced with ones that maintained the serious mood hinted at the first song’s rather epic sounding keyboard intro. But the worst that this band has to offer is still marginally good, and probably worth looking into.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on February 2, 2011.

As time passes, many bands decide to just repeat the formulas of success and keep releasing the same stuff, just with different names. This is where Secret Sphere seems to separate from the traditional italian power metal. The first glimpse was in "A Time Never Come", their previous release. Despite the bombastic style there were a lot of progressive elements mixed in the typical "epic" wave and the lyrical work helped a lot to move away a bit from the fantasy/dragon-themed stuff with a moving and dreamy story.

Here is where Secret Sphere started to turn into a progressive metal band with some of the speed of the typical italian power metal bands. The double bass is still there in most songs, also the keyboards delivering fast and nice melodies. However, the most noticeable change is in the guitars as they play heavier than before and also try to acquire their own style instead of just throwing away some random or generic riffs.

The fantasy is gone and even though the first song starts out with violins that could make you think the opposite, soon the guitars kick in and you forget about any signs of "epicness" or dragons. This is a voyage across several songs involving feelings, emotions, love, society, etc.

By the way, it's not something for everyone's taste. Probably most people may hate the lyrical route Secret Sphere took but, at least in "Scent of Human Desire", it serves its purpose: a series of wonderings and questions about humanity's way of feeling and living. Most of the album flows efficiently (there are some female vocal guests spread across several songs that help ensuring the "emotions-feelings" thing mentioned to be an important part) but it ends too quickly despite the 53 mins length.

Ok, after the flowers and praising let's go to the critics. The album has two flaws. Bad ones to speak truthfully:
1) "Virgin Street 69": I'm not a fan of track-by-track reviews but I pinpoint this song because it's terrible. In the same vein of the "stupid" songs of Helloween or some of the worst or most idiotic songs of Edguy, this is just out of place here and it's sadly in the middle of songs that are way better in all aspects. They included some female "moanings" (supossedly in a attempt to express the lust, orgasms or whatever they were thinking...) but the whole song, lyrics and that stupid sample make this one the weakest song of the album, also lowering the global score.
2) The last track is a deceiver. Ok, why this? I understand that is the second part of the previous song (which implies it's still the epic one) but it doesn't last 8 minutes. Again, as it happens with many bands, they do a song that is 5 mins length, put a minute or two of silence and then kick in with some idiocy as a closer, "hidden track" or some sort of "bonus". Here they feature a retarded tune that reminds me to the beginning of Mr. Sandman but comparing that piece with Blind Guardian is insultive.

Thus, that pair of things are the ones that forced me to lower the score to an album that is fantastic, progressive... and catchy, as these guys like to promote.

Try it. Secret Sphere deserves some credit for their efforts to move away from the stereotyped italian power metal scene.