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Mistheria: Messenger Of The Gods
Mistheria is the name of a well respected keyboard virtuoso from Italy. His work has graced the releases such as tributes to Shawn Lane, Jimi Hendrix, and also Rob Rock's Eyes Of Eternity. I personally am familiar with the fantastic instrumental duels Mistheria has with Swedish axemaster Thorbjorn Englund on Winterlong's Valley Of The Lost and The Second Coming. From listening to his excellent work on these releases, I have to admit to anxiously looking forward to the release of Messenger Of The Gods. This is Mistheria's debut album, and it took 2 years for him to complete.
The first thing that jumps out at me about this release is the huge cast of musicians Mistheria has helping him on this project! Notables like Alex Masi, Marcel Cohen, George Bellas, Anders Johansson, Hubi Meisel, and Rob Rock (to name a few of the 30+) grace this album with their incredible talents. Winterlong's Thorbjorn Englund (whom I mentioned earlier), even stops in to add some 6 string firepower to "Titans".
Musically this album is a nice balance of both power and progressive metal, with the neoclassical elements being the constant throughout. Mistheria does an excellent job of delegating the musical responsibilities to the large gathering of musicians utilized on this release. They work well together for the common good of this release. Stand out tracks on this album are the charging "Zeus Will Storm The Earth", the pounding neoclassical fury within "Titans" and the enchanting ballad "Eternity" where the emotional vocals of Hubi Meisel adds color and feeling to this beautiful composition. Mistheria plays magnificently throughout the album, and best of all he plays with taste. In "Praeludium Opus", the album's opener, Mistheria's playing really shines through in symphonic/neoclassical majesty!
Despite the album having a legion of fantastic musicians, and tons of fantastic musicianship to go along with it, the bottom line with this album is the great compositions. I highly recommend Messenger Of The Gods to lovers of progressive, power, and neoclassical metal.
Tracklisting:
1. Praeludium Opus
2. Zeus Will Storm The Earth
3. The Chimera
4. The Beast Of The Maze
5. King Midas
6. Dynasty Of Death
7. Children's Heaven
8. Witch Of The Demons
9. Dragon's Teeth
10. Messenger Of The Gods
11. Titans
12. Eternity
Added: December 12th 2004
Reviewer: Dean Pierce
Score: 
Related Link: Mistheria Home Page
Hits: 4481
Language: english
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Mistheria: Messenger Of The Gods
Posted by Steve Ambrosius, SoT Staff Writer on 2004-12-12 10:30:22
My Score:
According his own website Mistheria is the number one keyboard player in Progressive Metal in Italy. When someone is that self proclaiming, I always get a little worried. Messenger of the Gods is the first solo CD from Mistheria, but with 32 different guest musicians, this is far from a one man show.
Mistheria plays all the keyboards but different players fill in on different songs throughout the CD. Because of this, there is not a consistent feel to the CD, although in your face, slam forward metal is the theme.
Messenger of the Gods has the usual keyboard wanking that you would expect from someone who self-proclaims they are a "virtuoso keyboardist". The CD suffers from "too-much" disease. Everything is done in excess. The title track, "Messenger of the Gods", is an instrumental song that actually is the highlight of the CD. Rob Rock sings on 2 songs that are by far the weakest. There are 5 different drummers, but most is shotgun, all out metal drumming with almost no prog feel, saving for the two songs that John Macaluso does.
The CD really has some stunning sections, but just as you are getting into some of the melodic parts, an all out soloing showcase (either with the keyboards or one of the 13 different guitar soloists) occurs. The soloing was obviously done apart from the rest of the recording and you get the feel that it simply was put in by the mixing crew.
This CD is recommended for fans of the heavy, relentless keyboard metal. The guitar solos are all lacking a little and the keyboards lean towards overdone, but the music keeps moving and moving. Not a bad first effort, but lets hope that Mistheria decides one backup band and works on highlighting parts of songs instead of jamming everything together into this constant powerhouse explosion.
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