The Princess' Day

Skylark occupy a special place in my CD collection because they have been my gateway band to power metal when I was a kid back in the mid-1990s. They were one of the first bands I ever listened to in the genre, probably because they were on heavy rotation on one of the ultra-rare Italian metal radio stations I used to listen to at the time (RockFM). As a result, their 1995 debut LP The Horizon & the Storm was perhaps the first CD I ever bought in the power metal genre (and maybe even overall). Other purchases followed, including The Princess’ Day, Skylark’s 5th full-length album, released in 2001 via Underground Symphony.

Skylark may have managed to impress the 15 years-old version of this writer enough to convince him to buy several of their albums over the course of a decade. However, listened 20 years later, with somewhat less impressionable ears and various dozens of other power metal albums under my belt, The Princess’ Day (and nearly all the rest of Skylark’s catalogue) is terribly disappointing. I can summarize the album’s most obvious shortcomings under three headings: unoriginal and repetitive songwriting, awful production, and shaky vocals. Let’s examine them in turn.

Stylistically, Skylark do not depart much from the tropes of the neoclassical/epic/symphonic power metal genre that was so much in vogue in those years. If you can imagine a mix between Rhapsody (of Fire), Stratovarius and Helloween, you have pretty much nailed down the record’s key coordinates. Now, to their credit, Skylark were among the first to pursue this subgenre in Italy, but in the end that does not mean much when your songwriting is so blatantly rooted in the classic sound of a zillion other similar bands. Perhaps this lack of originality may not be a capital sin in the power metal subgenre, where innovative songwriting is rarely a priority. However, it does become bothersome in the context of this album, because all songs end up sounding almost identical to one another. Seriously, while listening to this CD, there have been times when I did not even realize a new track had started, because of how similar all the songs sound, in almost all aspects: tempo, structure, the way melodies are constructed, and even the lyrics.

Adding to the detriment of the repetitive songwriting, the production is terribly amateurish. Carlos Cantatore’s frantic, relentless double-bass drumming often drowns out all other instruments, especially the rhythmic guitar and the bass. Eddy Antonini’s keyboards have somewhat more prominence in the mix, taking further space from the guitars. At times, all one can hear are keyboard chords barely emerging from a double-bass drum drone. There are also mad swings in the levels of the lead instruments, for example in “Journey through the fire” when Antonini’s harpsichord is suddenly pushed upfront in the mix in a way that makes it feel completely detached from the rest of the instruments. The same occurs with Roberto Potenti’s bass in “Another Life”. The end result is a very odd-sounding album, lacking power and depth, and with glaring inconsistencies in the mix.

Fabio Dozzo’s vocals are another issue here. He has improved quite a bit compared to the days of the band’s earlier albums. Nevertheless, his performance is still tentative, mostly because he just does not have the range to hit those crazy-high, Kiske-sque notes that Eddy Antonini insists in writing for him. Fabio’s singing is OK as long as he stays in the mid-range, but his high-pitched vocals are really poor. At best, he sounds incredibly strained, at worst he is just out of tune. This is a pity, because the other musicians’ performances are actually decent. I especially enjoyed the guitar solos, which may not be particularly innovative with their standard, high-speed neoclassical metal phrasing, but are well constructed and performed. Eddy Antonini’s keyboard solos and arrangements are also quite good, and Roberto Potenti’s bass solo in “Another Life” is interesting too. Carlos Cantatore’s drumming is much tighter compared to Skylar’s original drummer Francesco Meles, although the drum sound is still quite poor overall.

These small redeeming qualities save The Princess’ Day from total disaster. They are not enough, however, to allow me to recommend this record to anyone other than die-hard Skylark aficionados and collectors. As to the 15-year old me who first got hooked on this band, what can I say? Youthfulness and all that comes with it, I guess.

Appearing to have honed their sound down, Italian symphonic metallers Skylark follows up with their patented Italian symphonic metal sound from their previous efforts without much difference here. The fifth full-length album from the group, which sees new drummer Carlos Cantatore join the group, has them dropping their Divine Gates concept for a new story that was originally released November 5, 2001 from Underground Symphony before various reissues by the label.

As this implies, the keyboards are up-front and become the focal point of the whole album with it placed so high in the mix this leads to light, dreary atmospheres over the entire album. Bristling with Neoclassical melodies, dexterous symphonic tones that weave throughout the melodies and sparkling bursts of flowery arrangements, the majority of the keyboard work is all sorts of fun. The Neoclassical melodies at play here with the bombastic nature of the symphonic patterns within the keyboards allows for a rather grand and majestic vibe that plays a big role interjecting melodies along the up-tempo patterns and the blinding double-kick drumming, all of which are part of the bands’ sound. While the album itself is noticeably straightforward, the fact that it is so straightforward and unyielding exposes several flaws. Their set-up of blinding speed and Neoclassical patterns shows the band relying on the same tricks, for the most part played around the same speeds which tend to get pretty familiar-sounding bleeding into each other managing to utilize the same rhythmic patterns over and over again. Nearly all the drum patterns sound the same, the riffing falls into eerily similar patterns and the keyboards strike up the same series of familiar patterns with the constant appearance of the same rhythms and melodies appearing throughout the album as a whole. Beyond this big issue, there’s another rather big one with the incredibly shoddy mix, really doing none of the instruments any favors. The drums are lifeless and hollow complete with irritating typewriter-clicking double-bass runs, the guitars tend to disappear from whole sections in the songs and are so light and airy they get drowned out. These factors are enough to keep this one down but still not to the point of being on the lower end.

Although there’s a lot to really like here about this one, it’s flaws just do hold this one back to the point of madness with the one lone problem featured here which makes this one solely appealing to the most devout and enthusiastic Italian power metal aficionados and fans of flowery power metal while all others should heed extreme caution.

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.

Skylark; I gave this band a chance simply because there cover artwork kicks serious ass. However, unlike all the other times I have made impulse-buys solely on artwork, the good artwork couldn’t make up for how much of a miss this album was (thankfully I didn’t pay 15 Euros to order it directly from the label.) This album has potential, but something went very wrong.

Every metal genre has the plague of idiots; death metal has all the “Drunken idiot” bands running around talking about raping women with VHS tapes, black metal has all the “Norsecore kiddies," bedroom bands and Christian black metal, and sadly (even though one wouldn’t think it) even power metal has such a group. Skylark is an example of the “Dungeons & Dragons” fantasy metal bands. Now mind you, fantasy themes are not something I am against, but when it is cliché and boring it becomes bothersome.

Lyrically, this is some kind of concept album about man vs. Satan. Before you read further remind yourself that Satan is pretty much the driving force and lyrically influence in black metal, and sadly, this is where he should stay. The spoken outro pretty much sums up how the horned one has been made a super villain by Skylark (seriously he has a bad evil laugh and everything) which is sadly just dumb, and makes the whole point of Hell reduced to simple Disney fairytales.

Their vocalist is downright awful. His accent is horrendous and every thing he says sounds like a needle jammed into my brain. At times he manages to sound like a horrible Kiske clone, but sadly that’s the best it gets. In terms of power metal, I am obsessed with vocals, so when a power metal vocalist sounds flat or bothersome it really gets annoying.

The symphonic parts are something to drool over, sadly there probably the only thing on here worth drooling over. The bonus instrumental was one of the better keyboard pieces I’ve heard. Of course, the keys are so awesome that the drumming doesn’t shine through the production (if you have read some of my previous reviews you would realize how I hate this). The keyboards are truly exceptional. However, with the drumming totally buried by them, after a while it becomes too much.

Whoever wrote the riffs must have tried to ride the whole “melodic” wave, because these songs are loaded with melodic riffs and bass lines (when the bass is audible). There is a general lack of solos on this disc, which is weird for power metal. This is by no means bad, just different.

The first few tracks on “The Princess’ Day” (this name makes no sense to me) are slower more moody songs. Sad songs and slow riffs attempt to set a dark feel for this album. Then everything explodes with decent Domine worship, of course no where near as epic. At times the songs drift into Helloween territories (they do these parts well) but no where near as catchy (I fail to hear the “Hooks” Eddy is famous for).

In closing: avoid this unless you are a die hard fantasy fan. The content on here is sub-par (excluding the keyboards, there up there with Dark Moor’s work). Now I’m going to go give “The Gates of Oblivion” a listen and try to forget this painful experience.

Right after releasing the two album concept series known as the Divine Gates albums, Skylark return in 2001 to unleash more of their trademark brand of symphonic speed metal. This time, however, the disc isn't loaded with special guest appearances like the previous two albums were. So all five members (along with new drummer, Carlos) of Skylark are back in full force on this one. The fantasy themes are toned down a notch here, but the concept that was started with the Dragon's Secrets album is still in tact here albeit this album is the finale to that very concept.

The Princess Day' starts off much in the same way the last album did..that being with a brief spoken female part. This thankfully doesn't detract from the song, which (after a harpsichord piece) quickly blasts into a firestorm of double bass and flute mastery. Oddly enough, the usual expected power metal high note that starts a lot of power metal albums nowadays is neglected here and instead you instantly hear Fabio Dozzo's mid-range voice to start off the pace of the album. The chorus of this song is highly outstanding, mainly because of the sing-a-long factor that is lent to us by the backing vocals, which are done by the lead singer himself. The song stays in full force up until its breakdown that comes complete with slow piano and guitar and a nice clean melody that is topped off with an operatic female voice. The song's goes back into its chorus of doubled over vocals and then quickly ends.

The vocals of Fabio Dozzo on this album are more laid back and mid paced than usual. He is really coming along as a very good singer in the power metal field. Besides that, his use of backing vocals are THE best I've heard and are one of the memorable features of every song.

I Will Cry Tonight is a somewhat speedy but sweet symphonic number reminding me of a romantic piece in an old movie or something to that effect. Once again, here we're treated to a good dose of expressive vocals (and nicely timed melodic backup vocals) and even a lovely classical interlude which is met in tandum with a guitar solo that fits like a glove. Furthermore impressive is the extreme range of vocalist Fabio who hits another break glass note at the end of this song.

Journey Through the Fire carries with it a hefty load of atmosphere and begins even with an intense buildup. Buildup, you ask? Well, it begins with a slow piano melody, which is soon met by a stomping guitar riff and crashing symbols all over the place and then all of a sudden (thats right, you guesses it) heavy sounding as hell double bass. The opening verse is very convincing as its complete with very expressive vocals, galloping double bass and fast guitar rhythm guitars. Then it has a great sing-a-long chorus that has the grandeur of any of many great Helloween songs. The guitarwork of Pota in this song is nice and crunchy and drummer Carlos is all the place. Thats not all though, Eddy Antonini gives us another performance in form of a harpsichord solo which is again is slammed together with a guitar solo from the fast fingered guitarist Pota.

Fabrizio "Pota" Romani is finally back in front on this album (he hardly played on the previous album) and offers more fast rhythms than anything. His riffs aren't really out in front so much because this is a keyboard driven, sypmphonic band, but there is no shortage of thrash metal paces and virtuouistic solos.

Another Life is a Skylark staple. This it contains all of their trademark elements in full force. Quick drumming and symbol crashing is the backbone of melodic vocals, metallic guitars, and whimsical keyboard passages. And thats not saying anything about the bass here. Bassist Brodo goes insane with his six string bass here. Whats even more is his lengthy bass solo at the end of the song. Thats right, a bass solo filled with cool tapping and a relaxing tone that is kept in line by magical sounding harpsichord.

Hope is yet another fine classical piece by keyboardist, Eddy Antonini. But nevermind any comparison to Rhapsody with this one.. this track serves merely as a buildup to Rufus which is sang very expressively by Folco Orlandini and Eddy. Rufus begins differently with a more bombastic sound. Sweet and emotional guitar and keyboard melodies get the song going but its Brodo's bass guitar that steals the show here. You'll hear here that he's not your average run of the mill power metal bassist. I'm still not sure how he does all of that bass noodling without a pick. Anyway, if you wanna talk classical music bringing to mind Mozart, then check out the middle section of this song. What we have here is a nice memorable orchestral piece that is all by its self..that is until its slammed right into another melodic and emotional Pota guitar solo thats filled with alot of bending a tapping.

Roberto "Brodo" Potenti's bass is all over the place in alot of the songs..he also taps more than the average bass player and he is capable of actually playing bass lines that can be either soothing or heavy and thick.

Symbol of Freedom is the riffiest song here. Its quite an uplifing song that starts with a quite a crunchy riff and alot of fast rhythms that are also found in alot of thrash metal. Anyway, once again here..Fabio's vocals are the highlight of the song. His delivery is flawless once again due largly to his own melodic backing vox. Another harpichord romp is squeezed in the middle of this song. Theres no guitar solo here (other than the reocurring lead found in beginning, middle, and end.) but instead once again theres a breakdown spot filled with gymnastic drumming, then piano, and another interpretation of the chorus done with beautiful female vocals.

The Tragedy, is the most poignant of the lot. Beginning with a spoken intro, (this time a male voice) and then going into some more gymnastic drumwork from Carlos this song is the epitamy of emotion. The verses here are very much filled with poignant imagry, passionate vocals, and more bass tapping. But really this song has it all. But other than those things, this song has the other things that Skylark are known for....quick drumming and insane double bass, and a classical, keyboard driven atmosphere.

Eddy Antonini's keyboard sound is the most prevalent sound to be heard. If you are wondering what classical music sounds like with crunchy riffs and double bass then give this album a try.

White Warrior is the heaviest and fastest song here compliments of Carlos (whose drumming is for the most part complex and always speedy) Its also the most Rhapsody-esqe...although more intense and less over the top than Rhapsody songs. A driving Maiden-like riff and insane double bass drive the song here. And then we have some of the most melodic, best power metal singing of all time ..overstatement?? Listen to the song before you disagree. Then the final climax of the album. A triple threat solo that is almost like a thrash tandum of hyperspeed guitar soloing, bass soloing, and double bass!! Don't turn it up too loud...it will blow your speakers!!! The song ends with a classical piece that is both poignant and memorable. This piece serves as the final chapter in Skylark's long running span of concept albums. The vocals here at the very end seemed like their turned up to a very high volume for some reason, completely different from the rest of the vocal sound...but still very cool! Rounding out the album is Princess of the Snow...this time in a classical, orchestral format. Yeah, its like Mozart joined a power metal band!! Its really that granduer.

The most noticable thing about Skylark though is the heavy use of keyboards from the founder of the band (and main song writer) Eddy Antonini. It seems like there is harpsichord everywhere...like I said before..its almost like heavy metal Mozart or Bach, only with alot of double bass added for effect.

Overall, I really can't say enough about this album as it is my absolute favorite ever. Its a culimation of all of Skylark's work up to this point. To sum it all up, this is classical symphonic speed metal as good as it can be played. You like Rhapsody or Helloween?..you'll like Skylark. As far as my knowledge of this genre of metal goes...this album is my favorite.