Stamina
Perseverance
My Kingdom Music
2014
Stamina are an Italian melodic prog band that to be honest, I had not taken “wind of” previously so I am not perfectly qualified to judge their past efforts, but on this, their “third” release, appear to be a quite concentrated and determined unit of musicians, that present a few compositions that they have worked on, quite seriously, so they are quite “focused” with however meaning that they sound as if they sound constricted by the chosen style. Basically, I’m not entirely sure whether to characterize the band as melodic rock/metal or prog as they seem to balance between these two tendencies, at times tipping towards one or the other more or less, but achieving a nice balance overall, never tiring the listener with over meandering prog passages or too sugarcoated choruses... that might turn you into a diabetic.
“Higher” is a nice opener, with lush keyboard flourishes, excellent vocals and a great and very uplifting and optimistic, chorus...
“Breaking Another String” changes the mood considerably, being a lot more, neoclassical in scope and execution, and it features none other than Goran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen and countless others – well not as countless – as some other ex-Yngwie collaborators, but still a bunch...)
“I’m Alive” continues the slightly neoclassical mood initially, but quickly it trades that mantle for a far more progressive, modern and introspective style that seems to be quite lyrical... making it quite an impressive number, the solos towards the end of the song, do have a renewed “neoclassical” taste, but without overdoing it, they manage to quite nicely mingle with the existing melodies, without becoming too typically “Yngwie”... but remain a lot more fusion-y...
“Just Before the Dawn” again feature the inimitable Goran Edman and it’s a majestic ballad where, he truly shines! Bravisima!
“Perseverance” being the title track features the guy from Dynazty, Nils Molin, on vocals whose in that band known for some sleazier performances. But here, he pretty much holds rather well with the aid of a few, female backups here and there, that are also used, in other places throughout the album as well!
“Naked Eye” features the normal singer, whoever that is, whose pretty much OK, with “I’m Alive” probably being his best performance?! While he is very capable and has rather good control and range, he seems to be a bit over the top, so he sounds like he’s trying a bit “too hard”... I suppose with a bit of moderation, he could be perfect! The songs is interesting, a little progier than the rest, with bass, wildly, flapping around, keyboards soloing and various vocal inventions, but if it was a little less pompous I suppose it might have just been “right”... right now it just marginally fails because it just goes gloriously 1 louder, 1 over the top... just because it can.
“Unbreakable” – (Seriously? How many people have written a song called unbreakable – Dimi’s rhetorical question over) is Stamina’s attempt to write a song called, wait for it – “Unbreakable”! Is it any good I hear you saying? To save you from more rhetorical questions... the short answer is… hardly... apart from a riff and a chorus that get repeated at the same time, only a few times, through the song, the rest of it, is mostly an FX, ridden mess, so pass. Nice couple of ideas, (and the solo that elaborates on the riff is cool too) but the overall song is lacking on quite a few levels.
“Wake Up the Gods” is the second track that features the dude from Dynazty and is as the title would have you, expect, quite epic, with wailing vocals and riffy guitars and keyboards that build up layers of mysterious melodies, for the listener to traverse through! Quite enjoyable!
Finally Maria McTurk from Royal Hunt (one of the backing singers) assumes lead vocals on “Winner for a Day” and her vocals that tend to assume at least 3-4 different “timbres/colors” if it’s indeed her doing all lead and backing (at least 3 of them are hers, I am not sure about another one, if it’s someone else or her voice with some effect/depth, it just sounds too different and harsh... make this a very different and quite dynamic and epic, theatrical song that has to be listened to be believed. Really, great.
Stamina deliver an album that they have really worked on and is not your usual, boring worthless, dross, that begs for your money, just because some people perform on it, because they got money to do it, or because you feel obliged to do it. There’s actually some scope, talent and ambition in these guys and I’d like to see them get somewhere...
The production values and everything else is “pretty good” so... I have nothing really bad to say against them… things are hard obviously in the current “rock/metal arena”… so the best of luck to them. I’d watch them closely if I were you... who knows, if they have enough Stamina, they might emerge victorious a few albums from now!
“Higher” is a nice opener, with lush keyboard flourishes, excellent vocals and a great and very uplifting and optimistic, chorus...
“Breaking Another String” changes the mood considerably, being a lot more, neoclassical in scope and execution, and it features none other than Goran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen and countless others – well not as countless – as some other ex-Yngwie collaborators, but still a bunch...)
“I’m Alive” continues the slightly neoclassical mood initially, but quickly it trades that mantle for a far more progressive, modern and introspective style that seems to be quite lyrical... making it quite an impressive number, the solos towards the end of the song, do have a renewed “neoclassical” taste, but without overdoing it, they manage to quite nicely mingle with the existing melodies, without becoming too typically “Yngwie”... but remain a lot more fusion-y...
“Just Before the Dawn” again feature the inimitable Goran Edman and it’s a majestic ballad where, he truly shines! Bravisima!
“Perseverance” being the title track features the guy from Dynazty, Nils Molin, on vocals whose in that band known for some sleazier performances. But here, he pretty much holds rather well with the aid of a few, female backups here and there, that are also used, in other places throughout the album as well!
“Naked Eye” features the normal singer, whoever that is, whose pretty much OK, with “I’m Alive” probably being his best performance?! While he is very capable and has rather good control and range, he seems to be a bit over the top, so he sounds like he’s trying a bit “too hard”... I suppose with a bit of moderation, he could be perfect! The songs is interesting, a little progier than the rest, with bass, wildly, flapping around, keyboards soloing and various vocal inventions, but if it was a little less pompous I suppose it might have just been “right”... right now it just marginally fails because it just goes gloriously 1 louder, 1 over the top... just because it can.
“Unbreakable” – (Seriously? How many people have written a song called unbreakable – Dimi’s rhetorical question over) is Stamina’s attempt to write a song called, wait for it – “Unbreakable”! Is it any good I hear you saying? To save you from more rhetorical questions... the short answer is… hardly... apart from a riff and a chorus that get repeated at the same time, only a few times, through the song, the rest of it, is mostly an FX, ridden mess, so pass. Nice couple of ideas, (and the solo that elaborates on the riff is cool too) but the overall song is lacking on quite a few levels.
“Wake Up the Gods” is the second track that features the dude from Dynazty and is as the title would have you, expect, quite epic, with wailing vocals and riffy guitars and keyboards that build up layers of mysterious melodies, for the listener to traverse through! Quite enjoyable!
Finally Maria McTurk from Royal Hunt (one of the backing singers) assumes lead vocals on “Winner for a Day” and her vocals that tend to assume at least 3-4 different “timbres/colors” if it’s indeed her doing all lead and backing (at least 3 of them are hers, I am not sure about another one, if it’s someone else or her voice with some effect/depth, it just sounds too different and harsh... make this a very different and quite dynamic and epic, theatrical song that has to be listened to be believed. Really, great.
Stamina deliver an album that they have really worked on and is not your usual, boring worthless, dross, that begs for your money, just because some people perform on it, because they got money to do it, or because you feel obliged to do it. There’s actually some scope, talent and ambition in these guys and I’d like to see them get somewhere...
The production values and everything else is “pretty good” so... I have nothing really bad to say against them… things are hard obviously in the current “rock/metal arena”… so the best of luck to them. I’d watch them closely if I were you... who knows, if they have enough Stamina, they might emerge victorious a few albums from now!