adg211288 Immortalia is the second full-length studio album to be released by Italian symphonic power metal act Sound Storm. If there’s one country you can rely on for high grade symphonic power metal then it is Italy, and Sound Storm prove no exception to the rule, although they have their own take on the genre that makes Immortalia stand out from the crowd, and all in good ways.

Let’s face it, if there’s one metal genre out there that gets accused of being cheesy, its power metal, and much of that criticism is levelled towards power metal’s symphonic variant. But every so often a power metal album comes along that seems designed to, well, I’ve tried to think of a less crude way to put this but honestly, the best way to describe what albums like Immortalia seem designed to do is to tell the genre’s detractors to fuck off. Immortalia represents a much more aggressive take on symphonic power metal than you’ll normally hear, both musically and vocally. All elements you’d expect to hear in a symphonic power metal album are present and correct in Immortalia, not to mention done very well, but there’s an extra layer of aggression to the guitars, the sort that you’d be more like to hear from the German power metal bands, to the point that the music has a near thrash edge to it. The vocals, while mostly melodic, typically have this kind of edge to them, while there are also growls in the album. Some operatic female vocals are also used, giving the music’s symphonic side even more of an epic edge.

Personally speaking, I’ve been one of the detractors of using growling vocals in metal genres where they haven’t, as a rule, belonged before, traditional and power metal bands especially, but Sound Storm are one of the few cases where I’m forced to admit that they used growling effectively and tastefully within their genre, and despite the nod towards extreme metal that the growls are, the music never manages to stray away from its path, remaining focused throughout. The end result is something which I can only describe as the band living up to their name, a sound storm. And it never fails to bring a smile to my face from start to finish. The genre of symphonic power metal may be rather flooded with bands, but Sound Storm not only made a respectable album in Immortalia, but also one that distinguishes itself from the masses of albums out there. An exceptional grade rating is more than deserved.

92/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))