Bastian - Rock of Daedalus

Bastian Rock of Daedalus cover
Bastian
Rock of Daedalus
Underground Symphony Records
2016
4.5
This is a band from Italy that did release an album a couple of years ago, featuring pretty much a similar line-up (but had more guests) and since they must have done OK, selling to Yngwie freaks and Obsession completists, they return to the scene of the crime with another attempt…
 
And attempt seems the operative word here, because this is not terribly good. Singer Michael Vescera (Animetal, Obsession, Malmsteen) and drummer John Macaluso (ex-Riot, TNT, Malmsteen) are involved both well known in the “circuit” of “session players” with a parchment of either being an illustrious former frontman, or player for a “big” band (many of them Yngwie collaborators). This has got to be one of the worse produced and less imaginative attempts involving Yngwie alumni.
 
The band was conceived in 2003 by songwriter/guitarist Sebastiano Conti. It seemingly took him some 10 plus years to debut, and now a sophomore has been produced within two. The sound is old school, hard n heavy that would love to be characterized as Rainbow/Sabbath inspired, but is nowhere that good. The mix is poor and reminded me some of the poorest mixing attempts of TT, when he was doing a dime a dozen productions for a certain melodic label, only worse. I loved the press releases bold statement that “the album was almost recorded at Metropolis Studio in Siracusa”… almost recorded?! Right… snd mixed on a PC, by the one man wonder.
 
A couple ideas on a couple of songs are not bad, in this “movie lore” richly inspired album. Songs like the (“Pied Piper”) misspelled as “Pide Piper” and “Terminators” are OK, but really… this could and should have been a hundred times better.