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"The Forbidden City" is the new album of Twinspirits, a band that is spearheaded by keyboardist Danielle Liverani. It follows the band’s debut "The Music that Will Heal the World" back in 2007, which made an impact in the progressive metal circles. Liverani, who is also known for his projects Genius, Khymera and Cosmics, maestrically guides his music comrades in a progressive metal adventure. The album travels through the roads of early Dream Theater, late Conception and Labyrinth (the Italian progressive metal narrative is explicit in the whole album) and lyrically discusses how the mentality of freedom is expressed through various characters. Apart from his devoted friends Tommy Ermolli (guitars), Alberto Rigoni (bass) and drummer Dario Ciccioni (drums), Liverani is enjoying the services of Swedish Göran Nyström, who replaced Soren "Nico" Adamsen. The new member is competitive to his predecessor and seems to cover very well the gap of his departure. He has a wide range of vocal abilities, which are boldly expressed in many parts of the album, yet I have the feeling that this is also his drawback, since he has not formed a personal style and an identity. For instance his performance in the beautiful ballad "Hide This Feeling" is astonishing, but when he goes more pompous, especially in the choruses of the lengthy tracks of the album, then the outcome is not the desired one. The main problem of the album is its unevenness. There are some very good tracks, like "Taste the Infinity", "Everything" and the instrumental "BTR", but there are a few uninspired moments too, like "Number One" and the closing "I Am Free". I have the essence that "The Music that Will Heal the World" was a little bit more balanced, but this does not affect the overall quality of the band, as it is in a transitional period after the line up changes. I am not discussing issues of musicianship, performance, production and artwork, since these are granted in every release curated by Liverani. The potential is still here and the only thing that is needed is more concentration. |
