At the Gates of Utopia

Stormlord have admirably carved their own unique niche into the black metal sound. I can safely admit that I haven't heard anything much like this release in my time. Undoubtedly black metal shrieks are coupled with fairly standard fare guitar work and Bal-Sagoth-esque keyboards. What we are left with is without a doubt epic; whether or not it works is honestly hit or miss.

Cristiano Borchi is a solid frontman. His black metal screams are without much fault. I only wish he would diversify his delivery, since his voice grows old as the album drags on. There are, however, attempts at clean passages and operatic sections. Regrettably, both of these left me nearly laughing out loud, partially because of the amateur fashion in which they are executed, and because they are so out of place. Thankfully the latter two vocal styles are rarely experimented with.

Pierangelo Giglioni is a capable guitarist with enough licks to fill 45 minutes without growing too stagnant. There really aren't any solos to speak of on this album, but he manages to preserve the integrity of the rhythm section with plenty of galloping riffs and hooks. My only major complaint is his overuse of staccato-styled riffs that seem to pop up more than needed. Francesco Bucci's bass performance is simply just there. Not much to write home about.

Simone Scazzocchio has plenty of presence on this album. As a keyboardist myself this is what initially drew me to the band. However after several listens I feel that there could have been much more done. She tinkers with a severely limited choice of voices, brutally overusing a certain string sound and playing style. The keyboard is almost always in the background, yet it always is playing the same predictable lines in the exact same key. An exception is the intro "Under the Samnites' Spears" which features a beautifully executed keyboard intro just brimming with epic overtones.

Saving the best for last, David Folchitto is refreshingly an awesome drummer! I was nearly thrown out of my seat by his blistering double bass speed on the album's first track. He is notably precise and ungodly quick. This is one of the rare instances where the drummer steals the show.

That all said, the album features solid production, with no real qualms other than the choice of keyboard voices. I really think that saps the most energy from the overall performance. You'll find after listening for a short while that most of the tracks are nearly interchangeable with how eerily similar they are at times. Stormlord has a promising, unique formula, they just need to iron out some of the aforementioned wrinkles before I can consider them great. Fans of symphonic black metal should check this release out, I still recommend it.

Supreme Art of War was a quite astounding debut for this young metal band from Rome. Actually, their career started at the beginning of the 90s, so they were quite expert in music. At the beginning they used to play a sort of black metal in the classic conception of the term, while going on they started to absorb various influences from the symphonic/power metal to create a quite personal style. I’ve never liked power metal at all but there are few cases in which it works perfectly with the rawness of the black. Stormlord is one of these good experiments, but I can say the same for the Skymning’s debut album for example.

However, Stormlord takes influences from the Italian mythology and the music reflects the same characteristics. The epic touch is always audible and never on the background as it clashes with the impact and the brutality of the black/thrash metal. Supreme Art of War was produced by Last Episode label and only when Scarlet could feel the good opportunity to make money with Stormlord, it decided to sign a deal. That’s quite weird for a band that is on the underground since 1991. Nobody noticed its goodness? You got to be kidding me! However, apart from my omnipresent slander to the Italian metal scene when it comes to review an Italian band, let’s get into this album and prepare for another good dose of blackened power metal.

When “Under The Samnites' Spears” materialises in our ears, the first thing we can notice is the pompous march of the keyboards. The production has become way better than the one we could find on the debut album and this is not always a completely good thing. Lots of the black metal atmospheres have gone, lost to privilege the massive atmospheres. By the way, don’t expect a too epic assault because the other instruments are always there, from the raspy guitars to the incredibly triggered bass drums. The vocals are shrieky but never excessive and they are perfect to follow the classic epic parts with lots of faster restarts, sudden gloomier breaks and catchy structures. Some clean, truly epic and powerful vocals are very good.

The fast bass drums parts are obliterating just like the stops for some piano parts, while we continue with blast beats and incredibly dynamic switching of tempo. The beginning of “I am Legend” is definitely more thrash/black oriented, like the other faster sections but when the tempo slows down, the epic atmospheres enter. The clean, powerful choirs return with the following “Xanadu”. The tempo changes lots of times and we can always find impulsive bass drums restarts and more acoustic mid-paced breaks. The atmosphere changes too and to the gloomy passages, they mix lots of epic parts. “...And Winter Was” features sudden blast beats/up tempo sections with blacker touches and mid-paced progression with dark keyboards.

The title track is an instrumental one with lots of dreaming moments by the keyboards while they raise again the violence and the speed with “The Curse of Medusa”. The bass drums beats are now far more present and the triplets sustain the more epic moments with more epic vocals. “The Burning Hope” is remarkable also for that massive, good thrash riff at the beginning and the tempo that follows. The rest is mid-paced but epic and some ideas are a bit abused but the breaks mark the return of the riff and it’s better. “A Sight Inwards” displays a sadder conception of the melodies with good guitars lines too but just in some parts because the thrashy restarts are always there. The clean vocals are a bit naff this time but nothing excessive.

The last “The Secrets Of The Earth” contains more epic and quite sad overtures. The best comes with that thrash, huge riff in the middle to feature also some blast beats. Here the atmosphere is far gloomier and perfect to end this very good album. I’ll always prefer Supreme Art of War but this one has good songs too, but simply less memorable. Few ones have not outstanding ideas and the long length doesn’t contribute, forcing the band to remain always on good level and sometimes this is not possible. Some ideas have already been utilized by the band itself on few parts but the overall idea is good.

Damn. I am in awe when I think of Stormlord's release- At the Gates of Utopia. It is one of those few albums where hard work went into every song. Never once does the album get boring. Every song has that fast paced level of action. Anyways, onto the review.

The album starts off with the song "Under the Samnite's Spears." The first 45 seconds are of an orchestral arrangement that sounds amazing, letting you know you're in for quite an epic album. Then it breakts into the hard sound Stormlord is known for. The bass in this song is amazing, so is the double bass drums. Add to it Christianos epic war scream and you got a classic. Not even half way through this song, you'll know this is an album one may not soon forget.

The next song is "I Am Legend." This song is based off of a book of teh same name about the last man on earth against vampires. The song starts off with a nice little death metal beat but then goes into a more melodic tone, while going back to the death metal sound. This song will surely make you want to get up and feel like you can accomplish anything.

"Xanadu (A Vision Within a Dream)" is the third track. It starts off slowly with a a man singing in an operatic tone with some guitar notes in back but then gets into the classic Stormlord sound. This song has a great drum beat and the keyboards sound out the most in this song. You could almost say the keyboards become the lead guitar while the guitar takes the rhythum.

Next we have "...And Winter Was." This is a song about how Hades got his bride. This song doesn't seem to have as much intensity as the rest of the songs on this album but it is still quite good when compared to other metal acts.

The title track of the album is what I would call the "intermision". Its a short little instrumental piece that is most known for its orchestral section, even though the song starts out and ends with a nice little riff. If anyone has

The sixth track is "The Curse of Medusa." You will put this song on repeat. This has a mix of both opera style vocals and Christianos own scream. Its quite amazing how well all the instruments blend in with eachother. If one song on this album were to be described as perfect, this would be it.

Now we have "The Burning Hope." This song also begins with a death metal style beat at the beginning but keeps it pretty much throughout the rest of the song. The fast guitars and unique drum beats make this song much more than your ordinary generic death metal song.

Next we have "A Sight Inwards." This song is more mellow than the rest but that doesn't mean its soft. It is anything but soft. If you read the lyrics, its quite a sad song about love. It stands out above the rest.

No we have come to the final song of the album, "The Secrets of the Earth." Most people don't like this song for one reason for another but I find it to be the most powerful and emotional song on the album, especially towards the end (and Christiano, Stormlords singer agrees with me). The music style is different from the rest of the album but it still is heavy, neverthelless. And breathtaking. In order to get the full view of this song, read the lyrics with it and let the imagery of your mind take over.

As you can tell, I highly recommend this album. This is NOT something you should download and burn onto a CD. This is a must buy!