Divine Gates Part I: Gate of Hell

When I went into symphonic power metal a few years ago I was amazed with Rhapsody’s unique approach (ok I was really naïve back then) but the combination of symphonic-orchestral music with heavy-power metal blew me up. Then I got into Skylark and I was again amazed by the epic atmosphere and songs length. Well, by the time Divine Gate I arrived I was absolutely astonished by its sheer speed, crushing guitars, ultra high pitched vocals and symphonic mix with power metal. I was able to get the special deluxe version and so far it remains as one of my favorite cds. The crushing pace and powerful music hyperventilates me every single time I listen to it. The style is very similar to Rhapsody but at this point they started to drift apart. Whereas Rhapsody focused more and more into medieval-symphonic elements and complexity of including more and more folky instruments, on this album Skylark focuses more on brutality, speed, tight and complex rhythm sections as well as guitar soloing.

So I have to say this: this is power metal by all means. It stands for everything the genre stands for: simple yet effective speed metal riffs without the complexity of it. The chord changes are not abrupt and actually predictable, high pitched vocals sung almost entirely in the higher registers, tons of symphonic elements around, sheer speed, rely on fantasy-epic tales. If this is not what power metal was about, I do not know what it is. The album contains every single power metal element there is. Certainly has its flaws but that does not take away the entertainment.

I am going to talk about the pros first: The long songs are nothing but spectacular saying they had it all: the relentless speed, tons of guitar solos, cool vocals (although they have their flaws), changes of pace and complex rhythm sections and instrumental passages. The keyboards are very well mixed with the guitars and provide an epic atmosphere throughout the entire album. The flow of the long songs maintains interest because they are a lot of twists, the interlude of the two singers is very well performed, and the narrations give a more sinister-evil ambience and provide another approach to the songs. The most important thing on Skylark’s albums is atmosphere and epic-ness and they perform it masterfully. If you want pure crushing speed and symphony at the same thing we are talking the 3 very first songs which clock at around 10 min. each so this is pure entertainment, unadulterated and simple. The ballads, as far as I am concerned are not cheesy. ‘The last question’ I’d say works more of an intro, next there is ‘I can’t find love tonight’ which sounds very much the same but they are very enjoyable because of the harpsichords. I find the ballads with Kiara much better but these are very good indeed. The middle tones in the vocals on ‘I can’t find love tonight’ fit the music like gloves and the lack of guitar solos does not take away any points from the song and the pianos do not overpower the guitars so it doesn’t sound cheesy or over sugared. The structure of the album although can drag some interest because the way the songs are ordered even so keeps you interested because, for example, right in the middle of the ballads there is a powerful song in ‘Earthshake’. Perhaps it can be considered an interlude but even so once it immediately begins it rampages with brutal speed and power. There is a lot of variety in the drumming: drum rolls, changes, double bass beats, etc. so you never get bored and the precision of the drummer is remarkable, being the speed of the songs. The bass lines courtesy of ‘Brodo’ are awesome since he provides not only the rhythm lines but more he sounds really tight and thick with the guitars, which is what we should expect from a bass player.

In regards to its flaws: first and foremost the poor production prevented them to really achieve full potential. Unfortunately the drums (especially the hi hat and cymbals) are really buried in the mix. The double bass drums are ok but as far as the cymbals it is a pity. Fabio Dozzo is again attempting to scream out loud every two minutes but he is not in control of his powerful voice so he gets out of range almost every time. Being Italian I’d say he should study vocalization and just trying go to the highest registers because it is Italian power metal. Definitely and I agree 100% here, Fabio Lione is far more professional.

It is without any question the heaviest material they’ve recorded, contrary to the lighter on the next ‘Gate’ but even so they are both good staples of symphonic power metal and if you are a fan of the genre you need to get this.

In the end, I tried to be fair enough with this piece of enjoyment for a metal head. I always thought this album to be near perfection. Today I know I was really innocent but even so, I it can keep me interested through the entire listening experience and since it still has a lot of airplay on my cd player I’d consider it very very good and a good representation of what the genre stands for. Pass by the production problems and the ones mentioned above and you will find it very interesting but if you can get ‘The last gate’ then we will be talking.

PD: as far as ‘Why did you killED the princess?’ that is incorrect. The deluxe version has it grammatically correct and there are no language mistakes on that one.

I really have to wonder about some bands. I mean, metal is such a wide and varied place, and there are so many weird, abstract and sometimes downright silly things that some bands can do. Yet, still I find myself surprised at times. We have bands that dress up like Vikings and other ones that pretend to be from the sewers. But imagine for a second if there was a Power Metal band out there that wrote ten minute songs about princesses and Little Red Riding Hood, had a production so bad that it sounded like it was recorded in a cardboard box in the rain, and was actually taken seriously! Wouldn’t that be something?

…yeah, this is Skylark’s Divine Gates Part 1: The Gates of Hell.

For those of you who don’t know a thing about this cheery band of kitschy cosplay Lord of the Rings cross-dressing elves…I envy you. Skylark are probably the most blatantly, unintentionally pathetic band ever. Picture Rhapsody if they somehow had even less testosterone than they already have (which would mean that they have some kind of deprivation of it, rather than just a simple lacking), with no comprehension of good English, a vocalist who can’t even manage the air of professionalism that Fabio Lione (for a lack of anything else good to say about the man) has, and no production value at all. It’s really scraping the bottom of the Power Metal barrel, without even one iota of professionalism or tact at all. The story is like something a fifth grader would make up for a class presentation, and the song titles and lyrics are very, very poorly written, even in the context of Europeans who don’t know English. Yes, they do have a song titled “Why Did You Killed the Princess.” I’m not making that up; that is not a typo. Do you really want to read the rest of the review after this? You do? You really want to see how stupid this can get? Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you then.

At first this doesn’t seem so bad. I mean, sure, it’s generic, but for a few minutes it seems pretty entertaining. But really, do we need seven minute, eight minute, nine minute songs, all right in a row, one after the other? I don’t think we do. And what’s the logic behind having a song titled “Welcome” right after one titled “Intro”? Aren’t those the same things? And why even have an intro in the first place? Judging by the horrible narrations that the band vomits out on some of the other songs on here, they could have just as easily melded the forty-four second introduction into the song “Welcome” and had an album that appeared just that much more credible. See? I don’t even write music, and I can put common sense to an album better than these idiots can with the backing of a record label, instruments and a full band to help out.

Oh, right, I forgot to mention: Yes, this band is signed to a label. Yes, the band that sounds literally like they paid for the production with quarters out of their own pockets, is signed to a fucking label and has produced a grand total of EIGHT ALBUMS at the date of this review. Do I even have to say anything about this? Good fucking god, even a (kickass) demo band like Skyliner managed a better recording job than this bullshit, and they are new to it. Skylark had been around for half a decade when they recorded this. There’s no excuse for this kind of laziness. And they keep putting out material! It’s a nightmare! Imagine if Cydonia or Ride the Sky had that many albums. It’s one thing to see a bad band with one or two albums, or even three, but eight? That’s unspeakable torture! And they’re still signed to a label, so that means someone must be buying it? It doesn’t make any sense!

So, with all of that out of the way, how bad is the actual music? How terrible is Skylark’s half-assed Rhapsody impression anyway? I won’t lie and say it’s god-awful or anything, because it isn’t. It’s mostly just really boring. Eddy Antonini piles on tons of symphonic layering and the resident Luca Turilli imitators on the dueling guitars finish off the mix with technically sound but boring guitar solos – yes, dueling guitars, you read that right; two guitarists were needed in a band that has virtually zero real metal riffs at all. Blow me. The double bass drum clicks away at light speed and the vaguely Nintendo-like keyboards sort of plunk around in the background, all while the lily-livered lungs of Fabio Dozzo fatally attempt to convey what the story is about. He is not a bad singer, but his accent is horrible and I don’t really think he should be singing material like this. Let the man go back and sing opera, that’s where he really belongs. In his own native language, preferably.

The songwriting itself isn’t much worse than bland and dull, except one thing. “Belzebu” and “Dance of Stars” have terrible, terrible narration in them that goes on for fucking ever in the worst Italian accented reading voice you could ever imagine; no power, no conviction, nothing. He doesn’t even sound convincing. He’s just…reading his lines, as bland and mechanical as can be, right off the paper that they printed for him. I think he’s supposed to be Satan sometimes – it’s a bit hard to tell, but that’s my best guess, judging by the “Belzebu” song. Whatever. He sounds too comical and one-dimensionally evil to ever be taken seriously, and the band’s treatment of the character in the real lyrics is no better. At one point he even says “this world will be mines!” Again, no typo; were they even trying? You have to try to write something this bad.

This album is mostly just weak. It’s not offensive, not actively so, but it is very weak, very badly written and very wimpy. The album construction is just baffling, not making a lick of logical sense. We get a bunch of really long songs, then a bunch of short ones until the end, where we get some slightly-long-but-not-AS-long ones. The short songs are all under the three minute mark, and sound like they could have been developed – not that I would want that! Again, I don’t write or record music and I could put this together better: take the shorter songs, extend them a bit, and split up the longer songs in order to build tension. Easy. It’s as easy as one, two, three, and yet a group of six grown adults with a label and advisors and managers and everything could not put this together in a way that remotely makes sense. I hate the world sometimes.

So, for cheeseball Power Metal, there isn’t really much that’s worse than this. It’s stupid, poorly written and completely powerless. I would hesitate to even call this metal at all, really. What do you think of when I say the world ‘metal music’? Whatever it is, I doubt it’s a bunch of girly men simpering about princesses and love and everything else that is featured on this album. This album is not only un-metal and un-Power Metal, it is the exact antithesis of everything the genre stands for, despite touting the usual clichés. Just because they can talk about things that other Power Metal bands sometimes mention doesn’t make them any less plastic or fabricated. Oh, yeah, sure, they talk about Satan once or twice, but when you put Satan in a metal album and it comes out sounding less evil than the Tasmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes cartoons…it doesn’t really count.

Oh now, here we go. This one is held in the highest regard of Skylark albums. I'm not sure if I would call this their best though, even though its prettymuch a fan favorite.

It is kinda short although it clocks in at just under 50 mintues. Now you might not think that is too short just looking at it, but you have to take some things into consideration. Its just that there are too many short songs. Five of the eleven tracks are under 3 minutes leaving only 6 songs that don't seem like they were "cut off".

But about the music..its nothing short of spectacular! This is Skylark's heaviest album, both lyrically and musically...and even in a theatrical sense. All the songs are of the super fast paced variety with the exception of a few. The production is better than before BUT still isn't as good as it could be. You can't hear the bass too well and the vocals are in front if you like that. The drums sometimes seem buried behind everything although drummer Federico is sure kicking some ass warp speed style.

The overall style here is of course symponic speed metal (as if those combination of words aren't thrown around enough) and it is once again flawlessly executed. Does this album rival any Rhapsody cd? yes, even though it sounds completely different from anything Rhapsody has done...I'm still not certain about all the comparisions between the two bands. This album also has plenty of guests..as it features the talented Vic Mazzoni (Projecto, Wonderland) on additonal guitars, and Folco Orlandini's (Mesmerize) unique 80's metal meets opera music style of singing.

Vocalwise, Folco stands apart from Fabio, the bands normal singer, who has the most unique (and unusual) style of all. (He sings low, he sings high, and he sings really high) His voice is one that I'd associate with Skylark though he's probably a turn off for alot of people that hate falsettos.

The guitars are in the back as usual, but are again providing the crunch! The bass is toned down a notch (you can't hear it!)..the drumming is FAST and played well (but he seems to run short of ideas), the keyboards are the most prevalent and offer quite the lot of sweeping melodies and grandiose symphonies, not to mention hefty loads of piano and the contant harpsichord romps.
To delve further into the epic tales of good versus evil we start off with a spoken intro (complete with the storm effects) that sets us up for (appropriately titled) "Welcome" which highlights for us all of Skylark's tendencies. (which of course are elaborate symphonies, speed metal paces, and emotional mid to high pitched vocals.)
"The Triumph" shows the most promise of all however. This song is one of Skylark's best songs both musically and vocally. The vocals are split between Fabio Dozzo and Folco Orlandini (Mesmerize) on this one which makes this even more theatrical. Fabio even tries to go beyond his normal range during the verses of the song. Musically we're dealt generous amounts of piano throuhout the entire song (but the song isn't as fast as usual) and we even have a mega climax at the end where the song picks up the pace from fast.....to REALLY fast.

"Belzebu" is amazingly fast again, but also the heaviest song...even with the medieval sounding harpsichord. It is a long song though, and does manage to slow down to mid paced and exert even more melody than before in the form of doubled over vocals. (forget about the silly outro to this song though, its nothing more than the theatrical theme kicking in when Belzebu himself speaks)

"Satan Arise" has ungodly speed (and everpresent drum rolls) and manages to cram 1209128 mintues of symphony into a convienient 3 minute song!

"Why Did You Kill the Princess" is more than cheese. It's actually the second best song here. (well...download it then)This is another super fast song that has Folco and Fabio both singing again, but this time we have Rob Tyrant's (Labyrinth) voice for a line in here but is sadly "buried" by the production and is hard to point out. But nevermind that, the end of the song surely will make or break your hope for this band because of the high falsetto notes that are hit...rather emotionaly I might add.

"Dance of Stars" is a harpsichord-heavy number that just happens to have a heavy guitar tone and fast drumming and tom-rolls (well thats the drumming for most Skylark songs actually)..this is another good song that is one of the guitar-heaviest and most intense songs here, but somewhat short, it seems.

overall:
PROS: some of Skylark's best written songs are present. Heavier and faster than before...this is symphonic power metal and it really sounds like no other band. Fabio sings with more force and emotion than ever before and his voice is more controlled, and he uses backing vox great again. Every musician involved gives a great performance..there is alot of complex moments to every song. Songwriting is top notch. The guitar solos are virtuistic, melodic as hell, and fast too. And the themes are very memorable and grand.

CONS:average production that could be better. The bass isn't loud enough. A few too many songs with Folco Orlandini on vocals. A few shorter songs that are too short for my tastes. The drums are played good but too often buried in the mix. Overall length could be longer. No bonus track this time. A few too less in your face guitar moments.

SIMILIAR BANDS:not really anyone...for the closest comparisons I'd say maybe Highlord, Projecto, or Wonderland (only with more keyboards and less guitar), For those not familar with those Italo-power contemporaries take older Helloween and add double bass and ALOT of keyboards (mostly piano and harpsichord)to get the idea.