LABŸRINTH — Architecture of a God (review)

LABŸRINTH — Architecture of a God album cover Album · 2017 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Kev Rowland
In the spring of 2016, the band's founding members, Andrea Cantarelli and Olaf Thorsen received a call from Frontiers asking them to discuss with vocalist Roberto Tiranti the possibilities of a reunion, some six years after their last album. After much discussion, the guys agreed, and a new version of the band was brought together with the addition of drummer extraordinaire John Macaluso (TNT, Riot, Ark etc.), Oleg Smirnoff (Vision Divine, Eldritch) on keyboards, and Nik Mazzucconi (Aleph, Edge of Forever) on bass. Many people still feel that their finest album was released as long ago as 1998, with ‘Return To Heaven Denied’, but that is only one of seven studio albums released by the band prior to this one. I haven’t heard it, but it is going to have to be something very special indeed to beat this.

What we have here is power metal which is in a very similar vein to Stratovarius, played at great speed with guitars and keyboards both shredding when they need to. Andrea and Olaf have been playing together since 1994, and this really comes through in the way that they harmonise and combined their runs in perfect harmony. But, they do know when to take a step back, as on “A New Dream”, where they use a quite different style to break things up. Roberto is also an amazing vocalist, who sings in a melodic manner for most of the album but also knows when to really life it by hitting even higher notes. In some ways this album is quite dated, but in others it is very much for today. If you enjoy melodic hard rock played by guys who really know what they are doing, then look no further.
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