More Italian Power Metal, which owes a huge debt to Finland’s Sonata Arctica and Cain’s Offering. The band are made up of Carlo Faraci on vocals, Federico Di Pane on guitar, Patrizio Clerici on bass, Claudio Ruggieri on keyboards and Alessio Spallarossa on drums. The album is the band’s debut long player and I did largely enjoy what I heard. It is not the most original of tune collections, but it is certainly polished and inventive in places, rocking hard and providing some elegant nuggets that may mature into more memorable vignettes further down the band’s musical journey.
Arca Hadian follow the well worn template of Euro Power Metal, with scorching guitars, classically influenced arias and fantasy lyrics. It may have become horribly cliched, had it not been for the unique vocals of Carlo Faraci, who sings from the heart, meaning that a couple of tuning ‘issues’ appear across the record. This does not detract from the quality, it just adds the right dash of humanity into a genre that relies on sonic perfection as its hallmark.
The gentle introduction of the aptly named “Intro” gives way to the blistering battering ram that is “Waiting For The Light“. The production is great and Carlo‘s vocals bring to mind an operatic Gary Moore. In fact, Gary Moore‘s guitar tone from albums such as Run For Cover is splashed all over this record…If you are going to be influenced by an artist, it is great that Gary is being paid homage to! The tune also gives a wink towards Helloween, Unisonic and Gamma Ray.
The band also checks into hotel Sonata Arctica and they open that particular door on “Killing Dreams“. Unfortunately, as much as I like Carlo‘s singing, he has a long way to go to beat Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica, but the song is quite atmospheric and melodic, with an absolute peach of a solo from Federico Di Pane and a nice keyboard solo from Claudio 
Ruggieri…Tasteful!
I liked the majority of the album, with standout tracks including “The Prophecy“, “Remembering The Savage Fury” and “Words To You” (loved the sitar section). However, it is telling that the best song on the collection is a cover of Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Rising Force“, which is actually really good! I have always loved this song and Arca Hadian did it proud.
Anyway, good effort chaps and I look forward to seeing you mature nicely on later releases.
Buy: Arca Hadian – The Prophecy
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLHFC3TJFg[/embedyt]
