I wonder if there’s anyone out there who, upon hearing the most recent album by Italian Dark Symphonic Metal band Sinheresy thought “Hmm, Yes, that’s a pretty good album, but what it would sound like if the keyboard player was able to form a band in a more Power Metal direction?” Well it turns out that there was at least one person out there asking that question – Sinheresy keyboard player Davide Sportiello! His wish is his command, and having gathered together the band members he needed, Elettra Storm was born.
So with Sportiello handling bass and keyboard duties, the line-up is completed by Francis D. Mary – (guitars, vocals), Matteo Antoni (guitars), Matteo Norbedo (drums) and vocalist Crystal Emiliani. According to Scarlet Records, Emiliani is also a model and certainly cuts a striking, confident figure fronting the band, however it always fills me with dread when a record company chooses to highlight things like this. But thankfully she has a damn fine voice to back her attention-grabbing look. The band’s musical approach is very much in the tradition of Unleash The Archers, Seven Kingdoms and Frozen Crown – so high energy, double-kick fuelled bombastic Power Metal is the order of the day, and extremely enjoyably well executed it is too!
Crystal Emiliani’s voice maybe doesn’t have the power of Giada Etro or Brittney Slayes, but she has the passion and emotion within her note-perfect vocals to carry the songs just as well. The vocal lines are delivered confidently and the sparkling choruses have all the fabulous impact they need. Ably assisted by Francis D. Mary on occasion, there are further echoes of label-mates Frozen Crown in these female/male vocal moments. The maturity and competence on display throughout this album makes you forget that this is the band’s debut, meaning technically there’s plenty of room for all the members to start gelling even more as a unit on further releases – Wow! This is such a cohesive, intelligent and forceful debut, that when there are glimmers of even more to come within the vocals, musicianship and arrangements, it makes the future all the more exciting.
The guitars are as dazzling as you could hope for on every song, both in rhythm and lead mode, with the keyboards cutting through and sharing the limelight on many occasions, as you would expect. The drumming is powerful, quick-as-you-like when called upon and varied, which gives the songs more dimensions with effortless time-changes to maintain even further interest. With guest guitar appearances from Sinheresy’s Lorenzo Pasutto and DGM’s Simone Mularoni to greater enhance the guitar onslaught, there is a real feeling that this band are already elevating themselves high up the Power Metal ladder right from the off, with such a huge amount to enjoy on this impressive debut.
(8.5/10 Andy Barker)
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