SOULSPELL — The Labyrinth of Truths (review)

SOULSPELL — The Labyrinth of Truths album cover Album · 2010 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
The Block
The labyrinth of truth

Soulspell really dipped into the talent basket on this great album. With great guests such as Jon Oliva (Jon Oliva’s Pain, ex. Savatage), Roland Grapow (Masterplan, ex. Helloween), Zak Stevens (Circle II Circle, ex. Savatage) and Germán Pascual (ex. Narnia) Soulspell really made this album something that many people will like, and enjoy. One of the many reasons for this is the great musicianship on the album.

Every musician on this album plays absolutely superbly. The great riffs in guitars mix really well with the underlying tones of the keyboards. The song that shows this off the most is the all instrumental song, “The Entrance” which, as the name suggests, leads right into the album. It’s kind of like a pick up mote to a measure providing a preview of what is to come on the rest of the album. The drums are a bit typical for power metal albums, but some thing else in the mix, whether it be the guitars or keyboards at times, make them sound much more original and different. Guitarist Rodolfo Pagotto is one of my favorite musicians on the album. He brings so much talent to the album, especially in his solo sections like the one on “Dark Prince’s Dawn”.

The vocals on this album are top notch. Since it is a metal “opera” type album, with tons of guests, there are so many good vocals to listen to. Everyone who sings does a perfect job throughout the whole entire album. I really like the song “Adrift” where one of the many male singers trades lines with off and on with Daisa Munhoz, the only female singer. Besides her higher pitched voice blending with the lowness of the rest of the band, I really like how they utilize this, unlike many other power metal bands that have no women vocalists. “The Verve” is another great example of this, too. Perhaps my favorite song on the album, “Into the Arc of Time”, features one of the best known singers in progressive power metal, ex-lead singer of Savatage, Jon Oliva. You can definitely hear his influence here, since it sounds like it was taken straight from one of Savatage’s albums. His gravely voice and minor notes on the keyboard, add a whole new sound to the album, which wasn’t there before.

The production by Tito Falaschi and mixing by Heros Trench is pretty good except for a few instances on the album were it sounds just a bit cheesy, but it is easily overlooked.

This album comes highly recommended to any fan of power metal of progressive power metal. Also if you are a fan of bands such as Ayreon or Star One, you will really enjoy this album, since all three of these bands are made up of a bunch of high quality musicians playing together. Soulspell includes a great, all-star cast to make this one of the best recent power metal albums that I’ve heard. For their superb release they get 4 stars.
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