Wings

After a long hiatus, Skylark finally return with their new studio cd. Well, I have to be honest, I was expecting more of the same style of symphonic speed metal and this album is anything but that. Actually, there are very few elements of this album that harken back to their previous releases.

First off, on a whole this isn't speed metal nor metal for that matter. The thunderous guitar attack and lightning fast soloing of the past is now gone and replaced by a more AOR guitar sound. My biggest and really only problem with this cd is the ryhthm guitar.

The rhythm guitar has an airy and fluffy sound and is far in the back, which is what makes this album blatently hard rock. The solos are actually more compentent than before (a guest guitarist is playing them) and are more clean and flow nicely wherever they are placed. The lead guitar work, although there's not a big emphasis on riffs, is more remininscient of newer Iron Maiden in places.
This is because leads and twin harmonization replace most of the distorted lead riffs that many of their old songs have.

There are still some symphonic elements, but they are very minimal. Instead, they opt to go with a more simplistic sound using pop sensibility with their songwriting. The simplistic sound comes from the vocals and keys being in the spotlight while the guitar plays less of role, expect for the soloing which does play a vital role to provide a very clean sound akin to Eddy Antonini's solo album. Besides this, piano is used in most places to create more of a clean, sublime feeling throughout the entire cd.

The bass sound is a bit better produced this time, and still we have no shortages of bass tapping and an overall bombastic approach. The drums have a simplistic sound and a very light and airy sounding snare, which is the perfect sound for this album. The overall production is not as good as it could have been, but IS better than it was before. The sound is very clean and you can hear everything just fine. Which is saying a little more than some of their previous releases.

The vocals surprised me alot. Fabio's vocals are more compentent and controlled than ever. He sings entirely mid range with more feeling (especially see the prog-rock tinged Rainbow In the Dark, a very thoughful number) and strays away from the typical power metal high notes, except for in a few areas. New female singer Kiara only sings on the Def Leppard cover of When Love and Hate Collide, which is a decent effort despite the fact that I can't see any musical similiarites between this cover and the original (because this is done entirely with piano and voice only)

Then we have Icycore singer Valerio Voliani to really steal the show. He sings on the two best songs which are Another Reason to Believe and A Stupid Song. Another Reason to Believe is the just about the best song Skylark has ever done to put it bluntly. Its a mid-paced hard rock track and very section of this song is stellar (very slick and melodic), with each verse being more intense than the one before it until it glides right into the AOR chorus thats straight out of any post 1996 Journey song. This song could and would be a hit if this album would've had a better production among other things. Too bad Skylark aren't going to convert so many people with this song, especially while they are still lumped into the power metal (metal is the key word here) genre.

A Stupid Song is exacly the opposite as its name would imply. Its a brilliant song which is appropriately a love ballad. One of the more beautiful songs I've heard lately, which begins with a long and sweet piano intro, and later turns into an uplifting emotional affair when it picks up to a mid paced rocker sounding much like (for instance) Journey once again.

And for more surprises, track number 5, Faded Fantasy offers up an acoustic guitar number which will distance this band from the power metal genre. Sounding more classic rock oriented, this ones got alot in terms of extremely dreamy and sublime sonics with plenty of conveyed emotion to boot.

Lastly, worthy of mention are the fact that also gone (except for in Belzebu and Last Ride) are the fantasy themed lyrics and approach, as this time lyrics are more thought provoking and introspective.

Overall, this a still a very good album. Its more prog rock and hard rock than anything but I find it to be a "mature" record. It's also brave record for the band to try. They came out sounding closer to Pink Floyd than Helloween but it still works. But, speaking of Helloween.. this album in a way is much like Helloween's Chameleon album because it is lighter and is a step away from the band's power metal oriented sound. If you hate catchy but light poppy songs you'll hate this. If you hate emotional rock you'll hate this. But if you are a fan of bands like Journey or Styx, and you are a fan of music that you just listen to as opposed to headbang to then THIS is your record! A Dramatic Departure indeed...and I couldn't be happier with the result!