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Since the early 90's
our neighbor Italy has created a good
tradition in heavy/power/epic and
progressive metal, exporting bands
such as Rhapsody, Domine, Time Machine
and Doomsword, all of them being famous
and qualitative, something important
and at the same time, hard to achieve.
The aforementioned outfits are still
delivering excellent records and they
are giving their best to keep the
tradition alive. But can they go on
like this forever? The answer is obvious,
of course not. And the reason for
this is even more obvious. Because
everything that goes up comes down.
This is an inevitable natural law
for everyone and everything. So fresh
blood is needed here and this is where
Martiria comes in.
Actually Martiria
isn't on the whole a new band but
it's only been a few months since
they finally managed to release their
first album entitled "The Eternal
Soul". It didn't take me long
to understand what I had to deal with
and from my prologue you must have
also realized it already. This is
pure epic-heavy metal that inclines
to the style of the mighty Warlord,
but there are other influences also
present, not to difficult to trace,
such as Manowar, Iron Maiden, Hammerfall
and even Running Wild!!! I know that
all of you, familiar with "The
Eternal Soul" already, must be
surprised with the last group I mention,
but pay a little attention to track
8 (Romans and Celts) and you'll find
some Running Wild filings and riffs,
played a little bit slower! But Martiria's
main influence remains Warlord. "Celtic
Land" with the introductive characteristic
Warlord-ish riff gives them away.
The same goes for "The Gray Outside"
with its emotional opening riff, which
again brings out to me memories of
old Warlord.
To tell you the truth
I really like this cd. It reminded
me of the good old days of my childhood.
It's an honest effort to deliver good
old heavy metal the way it used to
be. This is a mid to fast tempo album
with 2-3 slow moments (I'm talking
about some introductions and the ballad
"Winter"), with a large
variety of sounds and rhythms, with
many powerful, sharp and furious riffs
but at the same time melodic moments,
fast inspiring but yet again emotional
solos, with a constant rhythm section,
the necessary keyboard fillings enhanced
with piano and accordion that usually
produce a Celtic atmosphere and the
proper clear and dynamic vocals. My
personal picks are "The Ancient
Lords", "Babylon Fire"
"The Gray Outside" and "Winter".
All in all this is
a very good and I dare to tell promising
first step. The only thing that's
left is to create their own personality
and a characteristic sound, even though
this is a very difficult task for
an epic metal band, since the genre
was saturated long ago. But fans of
Epic Metal and especially Warlord
don't miss the chance to discover
a new Italian band that will certainly
travel you back in time.
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