(Power Metal) Heimdall - Lord of the Sky - 1998, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

История HEIMDALL началась в 1991 году, когда братья Фабио (гитара) и Никола (барабаны) Каллуори решили создать собственную хэви-метал команду. Состав команды постоянно менялся, пока в 1997 в ней не появились Джованни Кану (бас), Кармело Клапс (гитара) и Клаудио Галло (вокал).

Первая же демо-запись HEIMDALL получила положительные отзывы в специализированной прессе и привлекала внимание Elevate Records, предложившей ребятам контракт на издание полнометражного альбома. Так появился "Lord of the Sky" (1998), концептуальный альбом, основанный на истории нордического бога небес Хаймдалла. Впоследствии "Lord of the Sky" был издан и в Японии.

Между тем в составе коллектива произошел ряд изменений - к HEIMDALL присоединился клавишник Серджио Дучилли, а новым барабанщиком стал Оттавио Амато. После успешных гастролей с Labyrinth группа записала второй альбом "The Temple of Theil", вышедший в сентябре 1999 года (японское издание содержало два бонус-трека - кавер-версию хита Judas Priest "Breaking the Law" и композицию "The Challenge" с дебютного диска, сыгранную в акустике). Спустя четыре месяца после выхода "The Temple of Theil" команда лишилась Галло и ребятам пришлось искать нового вокалиста, которым стал Джакомо Меркальдо (вскоре вернулся и прежний барабанщик Никола Каллуори).

Третий диск HEIMDALL "The Almighty" записывался уже при поддержке звукозаписывающей компании SCARLET и появился в продаже в конце лета 2002 года.
( спец.радио)

Heimdall’s 1998 debut sure has plenty of problems – for example, the production is fairly weak, the songs are mostly generic Blind Guardian-styled compositions, and the singer is roughly one notch above “atrocious”. Despite all this, however, I often find myself enjoying the record. It’s certainly not great, not by a long shot, but for what it is, it’s decent stuff.

Being an Italian band Heimdall draw immediate comparisons to the countless other Italian power metal acts out there. We have lots of double bass drumming, epic guitar melodies, lyrics inspired by mythology and fantasy, and a singer who tries (and mostly fails) to be wrap everything up with an epic, operatic performance. The first thing you’ll surely notice is this singer, Claudio Gallo. He usually sings in a mid-range voice but also tries to hit plenty of higher notes, something which he just does not have the voice for. Also, his switches from mid-ranged crooning to high-pitched screams seem to happen at the most random of times, places where you wouldn’t expect it. He’ll be happily singing along on a given verse and then, for maybe the last word of that verse only, switch to a shudder-inducing wail that is way out of his range. Furthermore, his accent is simply terrible. Read the lyrics along with him and your reaction might be something along the lines of, “That’s what he said???!!!”.

As for the music, well, it generally fares better. Drums and guitars are well-played but hampered by the poor production that puts the drums a bit too high in the mix. The bass is pretty much relegated to a background role, so don’t expect much from it. If you can accept the fact that Heimdall aren’t going to win any awards for originality then the music can be fun to listen to. Take the title track for instance – nothing too special but quite fun nonetheless. The multi-layered vocals on the chorus are a nice touch, and the various guitar melodies are usually interesting. Gallo sings his heart out, and is generally tolerable here – just don’t try to pay attention to what he’s saying. “The Island of Ancient Stone” is also a pretty solid track with its similar multi-layered chorus vocals. Actually most of the songs feature this sort of multi-layered vocal approach in certain spots, something which helps the songs greatly by not relying only on Gallo to provide the melodies by himself (a scary thought). In general the songs are a little less “happy” than your average melodic power metal, perhaps more akin to something like Blind Guardian’s “Somewhere Far Beyond”, just not nearly as good.

Again, nothing here is overwhelmingly special. What we have is a moderately enjoyable album that is fun in spurts. This thing is guaranteed to not change your opinion of power metal if you don’t already like it, but if you do, there is worse stuff out there than this solid mix of Blind Guardian and generic Italian power metal. Get past Gallo’s sometimes hideous vocals and you might find yourself enjoying this album a bit more than you’d think.

Review written by Aeturnus65 for www.metal-archives.com

Claudio Gallo - vocals
Fabio Calluori - guitars
Carmelo Claps - guitars
Giovanni Canu - bass
Nicolas Calluori - drums