Nova Luna: Nova Vita

Nova Luna is an up-and-coming Italian Progressive metal band that was formed in 2019 by singer/songwriter Mattia Martin. While the band’s main sound is Progressive metal, they also claim influence from Pop metal, and 1980’s hard rock and metal. Their debut album Nova Vita was released in May of this year, after working on it for over two years. The album has a wide variety of sounds, and it features guest musicians like Reb Beach, Marco Minnemann, Michele Luppi, and Mistheria. In my opinion, this is a good (not great) album that shows a lot of potential from the band. It was well produced, the performances are great, and the songwriting is competent. I think the band could do more to stand out and be unique in comparison to other acts, but this is the signs of a good start.

For a debut album, the band fared well in terms of a consistent track listing and great performances. There is a good balance between more atmospheric/progressive tracks and scorching heavy metal songs. The riffs by Davide Martina are catchy and complex at the same time, the vocals by Mattia Martin are very smooth and he has a great range. His voice reminds me of a ton of different singers, but some of my favorite moments were when he sounded a bit like Klaus Meine from Scorpions. He also has an occasionally growly sound to his voice that worked extremely well. Throughout the album, there is some excellent piano/keyboard parts that add another level of complexity and depth to the sound. I preferred these moments even more than the heavy riffs. The album was also produced very well. The sonics are solid, with a good amount of separation of all the instruments in the mix. My only complaint about the mix was that I felt that the vocals were a bit too dominant at certain points. There aren’t any tracks on the album that I disliked, but only a few truly stood out to me. My favorites were the beautiful semi-ballad “World of Truth�, the hard rocking “Lost in The Sky�, the brutally heavy “Save You (This Time)� (which featured Marco Minnemann from The Aristocrats), and the piano ballad “Cause of My Poetry�. I thought the rest of the tracks were pretty good too but weren’t overly memorable. The track “Without Sorrow� was interesting, because even though it was star studded with all the names I mentioned above, I felt like they didn’t do much to add to the sound in comparison to the rest of the band’s musicians. That track was a little underwhelming for that reason. I think that the band has a good sound and are solid at writing, but I do think that a lot of the tracks are quite derivative of other Prog metal bands I’ve heard, so it’s hard for me to get overly excited about them.

Overall, I enjoyed this album, but I can’t say I enjoyed it enough to revisit with much frequency. I think the band is talented, and there is some really good and catchy material on here, but it was nothing that blew me out of the water. With that being said, I hear a lot of potential, especially with a singer as talented as Martin, and I would be curious to hear what they do in the future. I think this album is worth checking out, as it is a solid new release from an up-and-coming band, but I can’t promise it will become a new favorite.

Nova Luna is:
Mattia Martin: Vocals
Alessandro Piputto: Drums
Davide Martina: Guitars
Nicola Lardo: Bass
Valerio Simonini: Keyboards

Track Listing:
1. Addicted to Myself
2. Nova Vita
3. Over Machines
4. World of Truth
5. Lost in the Sky
6. Save You (This Time)
7. Morning Stars
8. Black Stained Sun
9. Without Sorrow
10. Cause of Poetry

Added: July 26th 2022
Reviewer: Ryan Gavalier
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 665
Language: english

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