Fairytales

Oh, boy. There are so many things wrong with Skylark that it’s hard to single out just one to start off a review. The only other album I heard from these Italian weirdos was Divine Gates I, which was also unbelievably hacked up and misguided, and if you think they forgot how to make music like that, well, you have a lot more faith in humanity than I do. People, this is Fairytales! And I’m going to go ahead and go for the obvious joke, since it’s not like this music had any more thought put into it: Gee, I sure wish this album was a fairytale! Cue the laugh track any time.

Skylark is basically the distillation of Italian Power Metal into a gelled down, unprofessional and sloppy mess of childish shit. You get the usual fast double bass, keyboards, high pitched vocals and so on, but it’s never done with any kind of finesse or tact at all. It’s gone beyond simply unintentionally funny and more into deeply disturbing when you consider the fact that this is a group of thirty year old men creating this music. Listening to this album’s matchbox-and-string guitars and those weird “big bad wolf” imitations on “Little Red Riding Hood”…you just have to wonder what kind of a mental maturity it takes for an adult to write music like this. It isn’t even like Rhapsody where it’s nerdy in a really bombastic and over the top way that at least shows you that professionals made the music. This is the musical equivalent to the balding forty year old with a collection of Magic the Gathering cards and fantasy table-top RPG stuff that the parents of the neighborhood don’t let their kids go near. Eugh.

Yes, the lyrics…let’s take a look at some of them: Listen to the music close the door and spread your Dreams /Ride the Winged Lion until he will turn the things /Feel inside your body your celestial Fantasy /Touch the Wizard and tell me if you've finally found the Key!…what does that mean? I get the idea, reading these lyrics, that they’re the kind of fantastical drivel that a child molester would write if he wanted to lure kids in through music. Eugh…just creepy.

Since you can’t have lyrics without a singer, what are the vocals like? Where the old stuff had a well meaning vocalist who was simply too soft sounding and too horribly produced to sound good on it, this album really goes the extra mile in order to rob the music of credibility and just has some blonde chick singing over it in this really queer, warbly voice that makes me think she probably has a mustache she needs to shave. She doesn’t really have any charisma or power and it’s really quite sad that she can’t even sing these ridiculously simple and poppy vocal lines and sound the least bit good doing it. But then, who would expect her to? The only reason they even keep her around is because she’s willing to pose in various states of undress so that they have something to get people to pay attention to their website; nothing else. Personally, such low self esteem is as putrid as it gets.

The songwriting is where they really go wrong, as even when they get an actual would-be-decent metal song going, they ruin it with the awful guitar tone, which is simply unforgivable at this point, and some really sappy pop melodies that are just about the most superficial and candy-assed I’ve ever heard. And I don’t mean simply streamlined and mainstream sounding. I mean like the lowest common denominator form of bubblegum pop you can possibly imagine. Sometimes they sound like nursery rhyme melodies.

The music lacks any kind of sincerity. Listen to the assbucket of nasally pop melodies that is “First Night” or the completely wretched vocal tradeoffs that make up their cover of a song called “Moonlight Shadow.” And “Little Red Riding Hood” drags on and on for eighteen minutes, eighteen minutes, and not once does it produce anything listenable. From the nonsensical slow-to-fast transitions to those idiotic “big bad wolf” sound effects that I mentioned already, to those stupid, stupid sounding guitars…what’s that? Yes, I do believe we have one of the worst metal songs ever written. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything quite so hammy. I mean, this is seriously near impossible to actually listen to all the way through. It’s just so hilariously bad. This is what they consider good musical and lyrical story telling? This whole thing is so stupid it’d be hysterical. If it wasn’t so sad.

To sum it up, this is so bad that it doesn’t even seem real. Someone pinch me, am I dreaming? It’s like they decided to make music that completely pandered to every false stereotype about Power Metal there ever was. It’s stupid, it’s annoying, and it’s sappy as hell. Seriously, there’s a line between sounding happy and forcefully trying to jam happiness and cheer down the throats of your listeners. Nothing about this is sincere; nothing about it is honest or passionate. It is nothing but purely idealistic, buttered up bullshit served on a rusty platter. But hey, at least their website has pictures of their singer flashing her cleavage at the audience! God, what a load; bunch of “LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME” posturing from a group of insecure morons who couldn’t write a piece of heartfelt music if their lives depended on it. That’s it, I can’t take it anymore; this review is over! Now if you’ll excuse me…I’m going to go listen to some Torture Squad to wash this shit out of my ears.

Boy oh boy...this sure is different terriority once again for Skylark. I don't know if they are trying to re-create their old sound with this or what, but it sounds completely different than everything else they've released. First I'll point out the very noticible differences.

First off, the new girl singer Kiera sings over half the album. This is for some (that hate Fabio Dozzo) a welcome change and it leaves others puzzled as to what the band is trying to achieve. Really, I believe that this move will probably gain the band more fans actually as it makes their sound more accessible. What I like about Kiera is that her voice doesn't sound like every other female singer in metal. She doesn't sing soprano like the singers in bands like Nightwish or After Forever but rather to me is more akin to Dark Moor's female singer in that she uses a more mid ranged "power metal" style of singing. Her accent doesn't get in the way either.

Her finest performance here would have to be "Lions are the World". Sure, the production doesnt help her voice at all when you can actually hear the limitations of said production (why's the vocals so damn loud in the mix?) but she puts forth a solid and emotive effort in this 11 minute long epic.

The first 3 mintues or so of this song (Lions are the World) is in ballad format consisting of mostly piano and Kiera's sweet, sublime and mostly subdued voice. They really went poppy with certain sections of this song as it sounds as if they could've came off a Mandy Moore record or something, but really it works here in contrast with the rest of the song's (the entire middle of it) very powerful and fast power metal backbone. The middle section is suberb. It goes from its 'Maiden-in-their-prime' galloping twin leads to the the solo here that freakin' rules all ass as well..so much that you'd think that its Kai frickin' Hanson playing it some 16 years ago. The feelings conjured here throughout just this one song range from calm and subdued to excitable and jumpy. Really pretty and genious stuff!

The guitars on this record are highly impressive as well. At times its nice and crunchy and other times its just plain heavy. The main thing to marvel though about the guitarwork is not just the excellent neo-classical solo-age found thoughout but its how he can make such simple twin harmonization (which is usually placed before he starts shredding...just like Maiden has always done splitting up their solos and harmonizing) sound so beefy and orgasmic?!?

The basswork is so thick that its actually in front of the guitars. They actually gave the bassist several bass-solos thoughout the course of the record. And wow..sometimes his gymnastic and head spinning prog-rock basslines can distract you from the rest of the song.

The drums are one of the drawbacks however. Drummer Carlos was already gone from the band so they brought in Mark Hal (he's drummed before on some earlier Skylark songs but was never in the band) to play them. Well surprise surprise...he's no Carlos and he's no (drummer before Carlos) Federico Ria either. He doesn't do any gymnastic drum rolls or anything outside of what any metal drummer in the world can do..he fills his spaces and nothing more. I just wish he'd lay off the hi-hat cause he relies on it so much as if he's afraid he'll spontaneously combust if he stops.....this wouldn't be so much of a problem if the cymbals weren't so loud and overbearing in the mix at times. Thankfully, this doesn't detract too much from the whole scheme of things albiet it is a blimish on a whole.

Back to the vocals again....Fabio Dozzo (who should've sang alot more than he did) does sing on the last two tracks "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Love". His performance is emotive and articulated as ever. His voice still makes some cringe every time but for me Fabio Dozzo is the real singer for Skylark and has been since the beginning so why give him so little time on this record?

Anyway, "Little Red Riding Hood" is one of the best things this disc has to offer. This was actually recorded back in 2003 (the track "Love" was also)though so it sounds just like it came from the Wings album (it was intially supposed to be on a part 2 of Wings) and so Carlos played the drums since it was before he left the band. So every facet of the production for this song has the same "classic" feel that Wings had to it. But yes..basically, its Skylark doing what they do best for 18 minutes. Everything they are known for including but not limited to expressive vocals, grandoise symphonies, loads of piano/harpsichord with a fantasy-themed approach. This song is so complex that I don't see how they'd remember it all if they played it live. Theres 2 seperate choruses and whoknows how many little neo-classical keyboard interludes in between. Chorus number one (right where Fabio starts singing the words "Fly..send me a sign..") for this song is simply the most intense and dramatic moment that I think I've ever heard in rock or metal music.

The production overall for this record is still not right. Its really on par with the production on Wings except for the drums don't sound like a drum machine is playing them and the guitars here actually have distortion making this album one that actually is of the heavy metal genre. It may be light and sugary but its still metal. Also, that vocal production is the biggest flaw as far as the production goes.

Also, this album does feature quite a fine and varied array of moods. And some of this material -- (probably more notably the midpaced AOR-based rocker "A Rose in Her Hand" and the emotive ballad "Love", which, when it picks up at the end, almost sounds like a popular emo band would play it if it were arranged a bit differently.) --will probably increase their fanbase. Furthermore, in the context of the same cd theres some of the riff heaviest songs they've ever done (like "Music" and "I'm the Evil") and some of the lightest most accessible material also (like "A Rose in her Hand" and "First Night") Prettymuch this album is taking a stripped down version of Skylark (which at times is reminiscent of a "more bottom end and palm muting savvy" version of Edenbridge) and piecing it together with the beautiful melodic and emotive power metal Skylark heard on their first few albums.

Also, there is a heightened display of talent and virtuism from all Skylark members (except for the drums) that really does make this album quite a creative and refreshing performance. I say well done on another fine record from this band. No, this isn't their best album but instead another gem in their catelog but I'd like to believe this album is a sign of things to come and raises my expectations for Skylark and that they will soon unleash the Ultimate Power Metal album upon this world...they just need to fix their production problems.