LABYRINTH

The core of 'Architecture of a God' is typical Labyrinth material; mid- to fast-speed power metal riffing inspired by the style of early Queensryche, high-pitched but controlled vocals, and fast keyboards interludes that add the much required colour and glimpses of progginess. 'Bullets', 'Take on my Legacy', and 'Stardust and Ashes' are fast killer power metal tracks, with the former opening the album in the best manner and Macaluso proving his skill and inventiveness, and the second being a real tribute to 80's Riot twin-guitar riffing. The rest of the album flows in mid-tempo melodic power metal with no real complaints other than the cover of Robert Miles' renowned 'Children' that adds no real value and the (expected due to the style, but not overly annoying) cheesiness of some mellower compositions. The title track is the longest and probably best track of the album, aided by variations in speed, a complex interplay towards the end and a great vocal performance.

Although it does not break any new ground, 'Architecture of a God' is pretty much signature power metal, executed by a talented bunch of musicians and highly entertaining. Shame they have not taken a step further to challenge their songwriting to go beyond the trodden paths. 3+ stars.

Labyrinth from Italy is one of the bands I've enjoying a lot since their beggining 15 years ago , so here is the review of one of their best albums, at least to me. Don't look at the rating score only 3, because this album is a real good one in power/ progresive metal zone. This is their third album from 2000, released at Metal Blade. I saw mixed reviews, one said is excellent and gave 4 stars, other only 2, the truth is somewhere in the middle, is more then ok album in this field and desearve 3 stars, even 3.5. The music offerd is melodic power metal with progressive metal leanings not far from Rhapsody their country fellows but less symphonic, quite great in places, plus the keybords are used very well combining some very intristing passages with the guitar. Sons of thunder or Behind the mask are good examples of how Labyrinth understands this style of music. Well, overall a fairly good album, not realy something who will blow your mind, but well performed and why not the second best after previous album who was a bomb Return to heaven denid. Fans of prog metal might enjoy this album, even is not very complex is well constructed and have arrangements who will pleases every fan.

This one is ONLY for the completists ( are there any for such a band ????). Fans of Rhapsody should stay clear even though Fabio is in this band. It has nothing to do with Rhapdody. The standard is so low that I grind my teeth in despair.

Please save me from this terrible album.

Labyrinth are most known by their Return to Heaven Denied back in 1998 and I was also interested in that album, when as a kid I was watching in the pages of Metal Hammer being praised as a good return of power metal... I don't hide you that I was expecting to listen to a typical power-metal album at my first hearing. However, I was impressed...

The album is quite close to power-metal, no doubt about this. The big difference is that although there are some 'typical' heavy riffs, the melodies are very interesting. All songs sound 'energetic' with great vocals and speedy riffs are followed by 'catchy' melodic parts, which shows that this band has grown more mature in its song-writing. There are some more progressive moments with clever keyboards, but the album cannot be easily regarded as progressive, in my opinion... That does not mean that lacks innovative ideas, actually there are many of them in here.

The ultimate 'stand-out' from this album is LIVIN' IN A MAZE. A song with a melody that sticks into your mind...

Overall, a very enjoyable album, that could be a 're-invention' of power metal through some more 'proggy' paths... 4 stars deserved...

First, a word about the band itself: just like almost every power-prog metal group listed here on PA, Labyrinth's musicians are very, very talented at each of their instruments, and that holds particularly true about the guitarists: Rain's and Thorsen's fingers have that unique speed that this genre's axe-players usually possess; their solos defy the speed of light, scales go up and down like tornados. The keyboard player is talented, yet doesn't shine. Drums are played as is the norm in this genre: double-bass pounding at high speeds, a few fills here and there, some drum intros consisting mostly of bass drums and a few cymbals abound. The bass player follows suit, too, as he is very fast and precise. Finally, let's say a few words about the singer: Rob Tyrant (actually, Tiranti is his last name, don't understand the point in the name change) is a typical power-metal singer but with a twist: he has a tone that reminds me a lot, at some times, of Enchant's Ted Leonard's voice, high pitched but also very... "boy-ish". I think Tyrant is a good singer but nothing amazing, nor different...

...And that's the major problem with Labyrinth. Their music is, like their playing, completely by-the-book power-prog-metal, with the balance shifted more towards the "power" side than to the "prog" side of things. If we are to compare them with any band, let's say they sound a little bit like Rhapsody but less bombastic, a little bit like Angra but less interesting, a little bit like Stratovarius but more proggy, a little bit like Symphony X but DEFINITELY less prog. Actually, New Jersey's outfit is the band Labyrinth's reminds us the most, but a SIMPLER, MORE RUDIMENTAL version that is. Whereas Symphony X's music has a lot of time-signature changes, a lot of different ryhthms, a lot of melodic instrumental parts, this Italian band's songs are very much straight-forward: same time-signature all the time, same rhythm throughout each whole song, guitar solos only when guitar solos usually go: after the second chorus. So, structures are not one of Labyrinth's most arresting features, as they are rather common, rather trivial, rather uninspired.

And that's the major problem with this album: it lacks variety. Most of the songs follow the same pattern, the same formula; the choruses lack the catchiness that this genre's choruses cry for and need in order to survive (try Stratovarius' or Rhapsody's chorus: you won't easily forget them). And, my biggest objection about power-metal: the drumming: it's fast, no doubt; it's difficult to emulate, no question; it requires great precision and strength, for sure; IT'S REPETITIVE AND UNCREATIVE, that's its pricipal characteristic. All we hear is 16ths played till death in the double-bass drums, with no time for rest and no originality. And I have to say: you CAN be creative with the double- bass. Just listen to Portnoy's drumming, or if you want creative ULTRA-FAST double bass, try Meshuggah: those are bass drums played at the utmost speed, but also with the highest level of UNIQUENESS, with complicate, sometimes incredible patterns. So speed doesn't always have to mean repetitive. It's just some lesser power-metal bands that make us believe that.

Now don't get me wrong, the album is not bad. It has a few good songs (specially the two first songs, they stand out above the rest by a LOT). The story is, incredibly, rather coherent and not as fantastic and ridiculous as many in this genre's albums (we don't have dragons and swords here, though I happen to like the band that deals with that). But the record gets boring halfway down, and what's the main reason? Uninspired playing, repetitive playing. We have a few good guitar solos but NOTHING WE HAVEN'T HEARD BEFORE.

That's my biggest complaint: this album is one more from the lot.

There's a few good bands that play power-metal with prog elements, and only some of those actually manage to truly play PROG-METAL: Symphony X comes to mind; Angra a little bit lower in the scale; Rhapsody, though cheesy at times, plays compelling, entertaining music. Stratovarius plays very melodic, catchy metal. But Labyrinth is just another one, not a great representative of the genre.

Recommended for: fans of power-progressive-metal that tend more to the "power" side; fans of power-metal; fans of speed and blazing solos.

Not recommended for: fans of real progressive metal, fans of unique, original music. Also not recommended for people that love their album covers: this one has one of the ugliest, most awful, cheesy ones.

Roberto Tiranti (who calls himself Rob Tyrant) is a great vocalist, one of the only guys with an Italian accent that isn't so thick you can't understand what he's saying. Andrea Cantarelli shreds quickly and has some nice rhythm guitar backing it up, and Andrea de Paoli knows how to be a pretty good keyboardist without killing an entire song with them.

The first song is "Chapter 1", which is a great song. The following song is "Kathryn", which deserves mention because it's one of the best progressive power metal songs I've ever heard. Really. The title track isn't bad either, but through out the album you have some forgettable songs. "Touch the Rainbow" and a cover called "I Feel You" stand out, while the ballad of the CD," Love", isn't half bad. Roberto's vocals need some polishing on a lot of the songs, though. There's also a bit of sub-par songwriting throughout the album, but as a whole it fits to the concept behind it. The production by Neil Kernon sounds a bit too bass-focused and unclear, but it is easy to overhear that problem with the concentration on the music.

If you like your metal played with skill and technicality look no further than this album. Not only that, Labyrinth obviously have some of the most talented musicians in this kind of music and they have the songwriting skills to back it up. The only thing is that this album is harder to get into than their other albums due to the fact that it's quite also a bit more progressive than before. And because of the fact that they don't really follow the typical power metal song structure formula means that this will definately take time to grow on the listener. Chances are you probably will have trouble remembering the names of the songs because they aren't ambigously repeated again and again in every song, but because of the awesome melodies and hook lines this album should be one to stay in the regular rotation of a power/progressive metal fan.

album rating: 8/10 points = 80 % on MPV scale = 4/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars

Already the opening piece "Moonlight" presents the symphonic speeders in full flight, with new singer Rob Tyrant, new keyboarder Andrew McPauls and new drummer Mat Stancioiu (great Italian pseudonyms), fantastic acoustic guitars, which foreshadows their more progressive influences on the whole album. "New Horizons" is one of the best examples for the more complex songwriting skills of the group in that matter. Wonderful catchy ballads like "The Night Of Dreams" and "Falling Rain" were powerful emotional and heart wrenching at the same time, with the superb "Lady Lost In Time" and the heavy anthem "Thunder" the definite highlights already made out and the album closer "Die For Freedom" set the perfect impression to an excellent record.

For die-hard proggers this is a quite unrelevant release, but fans of prog metal and specially those who listen to bands like Angra or Rhapsody should definitely check it out, there is nothing disappointing to find at all. The production is excellent, with powerful guitar and bass sound. As I liked this band from the very first time, "Return To Heaven Denied" still remains as their best album for my taste.

album rating: 8.5/10 points = 86 % on MPV scale = 4/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars