A Perfect Day
The Deafening Silence
Scarlet Records
2016
A Perfect Day is an Italian quartet that plays hard rock inspired metal, with a heavily progressive slant and a rather modern sound that runs parallels with latter day Fates Warning (pun intended) among other things. Formed in 2011 as the brain-child of Andrea Cantarelli, guitarist and co-founder of Italian heavy metal band Labyrinth, it also features drummer Alessandro Bissa (Labyrinth) and singer Alessandro Barruffetti, who replaces another Labyrinth alumnus, in Rob Tiranti, who sang and played bass on the band’s debut, quite capably I must say.
The “Intro: The Silent Prayer” is quiet and quite melodious intro that leads into “A New Dawn” an energetic opener that makes a nice dent, as it’s equal measures of melancholy, prog and rockin, keep it from stagnating while it’s nice solo sounds purposeful and well placed/played.
“My Lonely Island” retains the style but ups the ante on melody and sentiment, with the riffs also being a little heavier/sharper. The chorus as well has a 90s FW aesthetic, which is obviously very pleasant.
“The Age of Innocence” is also in the same vein, but gravitates towards a ballad stylistically, a more relaxed, but very melodic number.
“In the Name of God” questions the “in-sanity” of killing in the name of god, when it’s actually “human affairs” that cause all the conflict, asking that we “kill (y)our gods” and save the world. A strong message and the music that actually is enveloped in is most excellent as this is one of the highlight/single tracks of the album. It doesn’t stray from the overall feel – but it manages to really “shine”.
“Before Your Eyes” is also similar in concept, but through it all, it manages to sound somewhat hopeful and highly melodious, while here the band sounds like it takes its cues from something like “disconnected” while previously a lot of traces of the “earlier” alder era works are more prominent...
“The Deafening Silence” is another finely tuned and sung ballad that has its more electric moments, the second selection/single off from the album, justifiably so… Did I mention it has a fan-ta-stic solo? Well now I have!
“Angel” is comparison, tries, but fails to measure up, as it seems to slack, in the middle, without being, bad...
“Mission: Annihilation” suffers a bit from a split personality. It sort of stumbles blindly for one and a half minute before a most excellent chorus strikes you completely out of the blue… it then sort of repeats these fumbling verses, only to get to another instance of that peach of a chorus… a nice solo and another chorus rep, after some soul searching, I guess. A keeper still…
“The Fooling Glass” is YAB (yet another ballad) that without being bad, itsounds a little less focused.
Finally after a bit of a slow start, “Turning Back to You” evolves into probably the brightest most optimist-sounding tune of an otherwise quite melancholic and ponderous, yet quite nice and artistic album of rock with progressive tendencies and a smooth yet elegiac atmosphere.
With Fates Warning, sounding like an empty shell of their former selves, only able to replicate their past achievements while touring the old albums, this album came as a wonderful reminder of how deeply music can touch you, reaching to the depths of your psyche. Well done, dear gentlemen. Well done.
The “Intro: The Silent Prayer” is quiet and quite melodious intro that leads into “A New Dawn” an energetic opener that makes a nice dent, as it’s equal measures of melancholy, prog and rockin, keep it from stagnating while it’s nice solo sounds purposeful and well placed/played.
“My Lonely Island” retains the style but ups the ante on melody and sentiment, with the riffs also being a little heavier/sharper. The chorus as well has a 90s FW aesthetic, which is obviously very pleasant.
“The Age of Innocence” is also in the same vein, but gravitates towards a ballad stylistically, a more relaxed, but very melodic number.
“In the Name of God” questions the “in-sanity” of killing in the name of god, when it’s actually “human affairs” that cause all the conflict, asking that we “kill (y)our gods” and save the world. A strong message and the music that actually is enveloped in is most excellent as this is one of the highlight/single tracks of the album. It doesn’t stray from the overall feel – but it manages to really “shine”.
“Before Your Eyes” is also similar in concept, but through it all, it manages to sound somewhat hopeful and highly melodious, while here the band sounds like it takes its cues from something like “disconnected” while previously a lot of traces of the “earlier” alder era works are more prominent...
“The Deafening Silence” is another finely tuned and sung ballad that has its more electric moments, the second selection/single off from the album, justifiably so… Did I mention it has a fan-ta-stic solo? Well now I have!
“Angel” is comparison, tries, but fails to measure up, as it seems to slack, in the middle, without being, bad...
“Mission: Annihilation” suffers a bit from a split personality. It sort of stumbles blindly for one and a half minute before a most excellent chorus strikes you completely out of the blue… it then sort of repeats these fumbling verses, only to get to another instance of that peach of a chorus… a nice solo and another chorus rep, after some soul searching, I guess. A keeper still…
“The Fooling Glass” is YAB (yet another ballad) that without being bad, itsounds a little less focused.
Finally after a bit of a slow start, “Turning Back to You” evolves into probably the brightest most optimist-sounding tune of an otherwise quite melancholic and ponderous, yet quite nice and artistic album of rock with progressive tendencies and a smooth yet elegiac atmosphere.
With Fates Warning, sounding like an empty shell of their former selves, only able to replicate their past achievements while touring the old albums, this album came as a wonderful reminder of how deeply music can touch you, reaching to the depths of your psyche. Well done, dear gentlemen. Well done.