Here is another band I've seen a lot of buzz about on the interwebs lately and thought they were worth looking into. Hailing from Italy, Solisia's Ordinary Fate is their first full-length release after a shorter demo came out in 2007. Most commonly labeled as progressive power metal, Solisia is a female-fronted band with a ballsy lead vocalist, Marilena Stigliano, who belts out in a decent alto-ish range. How important is labeling? The eternal question. When it's done right, it's not an issue. When it's not, it becomes an issue. Solisia is definitely not symphonic power metal, and if you listen to it thinking it is symphonic PM, then you are going to be disappointed. There really are no symphonic elements in here to speak of. Perhaps this is why Arno Callen, who reviewed this CD over at Black Wind Metal, might not have liked the album so much.
I personally though it was very good and very promising. It has all the trappings of good melodic metal: it's fast, bombastic, heavy on the keyboards, has strong guitar work, and altogether has an amazing PM feel to it. However, had Solisia gone with a classical soprano and some of the more traditional symphonic sounding keyboard elements, I would probably have agreed with Arno because those would have made this band sound a bit cheesy and cliche. As it is, though, Marilena's vocals are a definite rock-style in a lower range and the keyboard elements have an 80s synth sound to them that sounded pretty cool and pretty different for the genre. These two elements alone make Solisia a bit of a stand-out to me. Marilena is does not have a "sweet" tonality to her voice, which makes it not poppy, but rather she is quite powerful and at times she reminded me of Coronatus's original rock alto Lisa Lasch and Silentium's Riina Rinkinen.
Standout songs for me were the title track, "Ordinary Fate" which starts the album off with a terrific bombastic intro and with the backing vocals reminded me a lot of Edenbridge, and the final track, "Unrevealed Words", which has a pretty epic feel to it. There is one ballad, "I'll Take You With Me" that I enjoyed, and there was a really cool instrumental piece entitled "Overlude" that was also very well done.
So, in the end, I enjoyed this and think it's a promising start for Solisia. Horns up! \m/
Here is "Ordinary Fate."
12 comments:
Wow, where do you keep finding these bands Canuck?? Not bad, definately promise with these guys for sure! You can defineatly hear the Rhapsody influence (another PM band from Italy)
Well, that's the interwebs for you! All kinds of good shit out there but you just need time to search it out. :) Other blogs are very helpful, as I've noted.
Arno's not actually a big fan of symphonic power metal, unlike myself. I think that he just doesn't care much for female vocalists, unfortunately. :P
I'm going to give this another couple of listens and see if my attitude changes. I feel I must ask, have you heard Seven Kingdoms?
Ah, Seven Kingdoms is on my list of bands to check out! I haven't gotten to them yet, though. Do you recommend them?
Oh my yes. Listen to their self-titled second album. Perhaps read my review to get a good feel, but they mix excellent female-fronted melodic PM with some vaguely folkish/medieval melo-death.
...how about Ancient Bards?
Never heard of Ancient Bards, but I like the name!
Well, depending on how much you like your new-school of symphonic power metal (Rhapsody of Fire's latest album and EP, Pathfinder's debut, Heavenfall, etc.), you might even want to look into that first!
One of the best things to happen to the scene last year, at any rate. :)
...I'm a bit ravenous when it comes to power metal, if that wasn't already evident.
Oh, and thanks for the link! I have reciprocated in kind. :D
CanuckFan, I'm glad you like Solisia. You're a little more critical than me, so I wasn't sure what you'd think.
As for Seven Kingdoms, they are a pretty fun American power metal band, but alas, many are the growls! But there are some songs with minimal growls, and I have played several of their songs on my show.
@S&S:
At least "Into the Darkness" and "Somewhere Far Away" are free of said growls, and I think the best songs on the album anyways. :)
I've finally come to not mind the harsh vocals so much, provided that the music is melodic enough. Took me a long time though. :P
More growls? Nooooooooooooo!
OK, the first SK album, Brothers of the Night, is atrocious vocally. The clean male vocalist is terrible! Their second album with the female lead is waaaaaaaay better.
Same conclusion I came to. :)
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