4.6.12

Derdian New Era Pt 3 The Apocalypse 2010

As a fan of power metal, I welcome a band that reviewers universally compared them to Rhapsody of Fire. Coming from Milan, Derdian is in the homeland of epic power metal in the style of Italian. To be more epic, all their releases so far is a continuation fantasy concept album called "New Era". In 2010, the third edition was released, New Era Pt.3 The Apocalypse. I must say I skipped the first two editions due to time constraint and only listen to their latest.

Being aware of some criticism on the album for its cheekiness, less originality or too Rhapsodian, I completely off guard and blown by their offer on this album. The album offered as much as epic moment right from the first notes on their intro, Preludio. The Spell is the first vocal lyric, goes in with a good mood of any power metal song. This song also provide nice interlude that utilized folk feel odd tempo to counter the issue about easy predicted tunes, a casual problem in power metal. But the real epic comes from second song, Battleplan, a powerful song with its familiar Rhapsody scale and groove. This continue with Black Rose, which has a beautiful song writing melody. The piano scroll here gives an unique and memorable momentum, this dispels the myth that this album doesn't have any memorable melodies.

Her Spirit Will Fly Away back to fast double pedal song. Again, the song is able to raise the mood and has interesting song development with addition of female operatic voice in the middle. Dreams is most likely gives Luca Turilli fans a dejavu with its Italian scale of power metal. Everything went high in the rest of this album. Burn is the late epic song pop in. Forevermore is an intermezzo with female voice as leading singer to its power chorus. The whole epic then close with two neo classical composition, Presagio and The Apocalyspe which is half instrumental composition.

This whole power metal moments then perfected by how beautiful the tunes and sound engineer put in this album. The guitar tunes sounds most crystal clear and screaming. Keyboard layering here is notable. This is the area that will defined how far they can jump out of Rhapsody-like sound. In many moments, the keyboard choose to use the piano sound as duelling voice against the guitar, which is quite memorable here. Marco Garau the keyboard wizard also created many creative moments, as in intro of The Prophecy that will surely very memorable. The singer, Joe Caggianelli is able to raise the moment with his voice. Unfortunately Joe departed from this band in February 2012. Whole band musicianship is top the game.

So, what happens here is the whole hour of epic melodious power metal. I can't find anything that prevent me from not enjoying this album. Forget originality issue since this is power metal, dude. But Derdian with its dedicated musicians gives another great contribution to the genre. Do not believe other critics or reviewers before you listen to this. I will wait their release without hesitation, a rating 8/10 is worthwhile.

Metal Harem class: ******** 8 stars out of 10

Derdian New Era Pt.3 The Apocalypse
buy it here

1. Preludio
2. The Spell
3. Battleplan
4. Black Rose
5. Her Spirit Will Fly Again
6. Dreams
7. Divine Embrace
8. The Prophecy
9. Burn
10. Forevermore
11. Revolt
12. Presagio
13. The Apocalypse

    Joe Caggianelli - Vocals
    Marco Garau - Keyboards
    Henry Enrico Pistolese - Guitar, backing vocals
    Dario Radaelli - Lead guitar
    Marco Banfi - Bass
    Salva - Drums

Fantasy Art for Derdian Album Cover









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