Astral Domine
Arcanum Gloriae
Bakerteam Records
2014
Apparently since “Game of Thrones” became successful, all the “Castle ‘n Conquerors”, Dungeon and Dragons playing friends of ours, have been hard at work, making epic music… 
And who does it better or “worse” (it all a matter of opinion really) or overblown, than our good neighbors, the Italians!
Astral Domine are the brainchild of a guy called Luca Gagnoni, who I have never heard of before and who professes to be a lyricist and musical composer. I have no reason or mood to rebut those claims, so we’ll take them at face value for now. In 2011 Luca created this band with the intent of creating epic, powerful music with a peaceful message and 2014 will see the release of their debut album “Arcanum Gloriae”, which features some 10 compositions and features special guest appearances by renowned singers Fabio Lione (Rhapsody of Fire, Vision Divine, Hollow Haze) on the song “Where Heroes Die” and Giuseppe “Ciape” Cialone (Rosae Crucis) on the song “Falsi Dei”.
For better or worse, it’s a Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody or Rhapsody of “old” styled album, without all the luscious orchestrations, all the tarantellas and with inherently lower production value, it’s not horrible, but it suffers, mix wise at the very least. It is also not something “new” as this style is at this point, “done”... I don't know if Astral Domine are hoping for a revival, but their album looks hardly like material that could spearhead such a movement, especially with 2 versions of the “original” band that started it all... ever present... their better asset appears to be their singer, Marco Scorletti, that appears to be quite capable, even if he’s not “entirely ready” to compete on an international level... he manages to put down some really cool performances on songs like “Holy Knight”, “My Lord” etc… with a bit of effort he could really turn out to be quite the “apocalypse”... I suppose, like most people hailing from Italy, working a bit on the accent and thickening the delivery a bit would make him ace in time!
For people that would still like to investigate it – or who just like the Italian power metal style very much, well, Astral Domine’s debut might just be your thing... feel free to check it out. There’s nothing “principally” bad with it... it’s just not “Premiere League” material.
And who does it better or “worse” (it all a matter of opinion really) or overblown, than our good neighbors, the Italians!Astral Domine are the brainchild of a guy called Luca Gagnoni, who I have never heard of before and who professes to be a lyricist and musical composer. I have no reason or mood to rebut those claims, so we’ll take them at face value for now. In 2011 Luca created this band with the intent of creating epic, powerful music with a peaceful message and 2014 will see the release of their debut album “Arcanum Gloriae”, which features some 10 compositions and features special guest appearances by renowned singers Fabio Lione (Rhapsody of Fire, Vision Divine, Hollow Haze) on the song “Where Heroes Die” and Giuseppe “Ciape” Cialone (Rosae Crucis) on the song “Falsi Dei”.
For better or worse, it’s a Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody or Rhapsody of “old” styled album, without all the luscious orchestrations, all the tarantellas and with inherently lower production value, it’s not horrible, but it suffers, mix wise at the very least. It is also not something “new” as this style is at this point, “done”... I don't know if Astral Domine are hoping for a revival, but their album looks hardly like material that could spearhead such a movement, especially with 2 versions of the “original” band that started it all... ever present... their better asset appears to be their singer, Marco Scorletti, that appears to be quite capable, even if he’s not “entirely ready” to compete on an international level... he manages to put down some really cool performances on songs like “Holy Knight”, “My Lord” etc… with a bit of effort he could really turn out to be quite the “apocalypse”... I suppose, like most people hailing from Italy, working a bit on the accent and thickening the delivery a bit would make him ace in time!
For people that would still like to investigate it – or who just like the Italian power metal style very much, well, Astral Domine’s debut might just be your thing... feel free to check it out. There’s nothing “principally” bad with it... it’s just not “Premiere League” material.