SpellBlast – Nineteen (2014)

As with Spellblast, I was attracted by their debut album, Horns Of Silence, in which came with great balance of folk elements and power metal. But it's only on their latest release Nineteen (2014), that I manage to catch up with the band again. The band has changed a bit, the lead singer is now Daniel Scavoni. He is a good replacement, changing the band's voices into more powerful, his character is compare to alike of Jorn and/or a slightly softer version of Russel Allen.

The first song Banished comes smoothly, starts with necessary introduction, then went into the familiar power metal feel. The guitar sounds great, making the simple power riffs accompanying the verses enjoyable. A safe start and nothing unusual, the solos is kicking as well. Eyes in the Void is having excellent drumming variation in the beginning, the song which starts in calm verses only perfected when the choruses reached later. There is a one minute plus instrumental works to follow, Highway to Lud. For a couple of listening, this folk experiment track will become familiar to your ear.  A World That Has Moved On is a fast moving number, the choruses with the title sentenced fit well. Meanwhile, the whole album is written on basis of Stephen King's Dark Tower saga, which I have no knowledge about. An orchestration interlude comes next, The Reaping is typical Italian symphonic metal with nice groove in it. The band gives a good atmospheric effect, a song titled Into Demon's Nest sounds exactly like a soundtrack in the nest of undead. On Shattered Mind, the band is on top of their conceptual song writing, putting the song into a dialog-ish like structures. In which several passage reminds us to Dream Theater's styles. And we still got half dozen of songs in the later part of the album.

Nineteen is a power metal album with consistency. On the whole album, there are many solid song writing inside. The band did not created much unnecessary experiments (except for track #3),  if you like a straight forward album this is for you. The usage of folk elements is rather less though on this release, rather they excelled in putting the whole album into more melodic feel. Another Italian power metal band to spend on!

Metal Harem class : ********* eight stars out of ten

SpellBlast – Nineteen (2014)
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1. Banished 03:46
2. Eyes in the Void 04:40
3. Highway to Lud 01:41
4. A World That Has Moved On 03:45
5. The Reaping 05:11
6. Into Demon’s Nest 03:51
7. Blind Rage 03:55
8. Shattered Mind 04:06
9. Until the End 04:37
10. We Ride 03:35
11. Programmed to Serve 04:07
12. Endless Journey 04:11
13. The Calling 05:36

Luca Arzuffi - Guitars
Xavier Rota - Bass
Daniele Scavoni - Vocals
Michele ''Mikymetal'' Olmi - Drums & Percussions