LABYRINTH – Architecture Of A God (2017)

After a seven-year hiatus Italian rockers LABYRINTH return with a brand new studio album, “Architecture Of A God“, to be released tomorrow April 21 via Frontiers Music Srl.
One of Italy’s seminal and leading progressive metal bands, the musical muses at Frontiers Music were able to persuade founding members and guitarists Olaf Thorsen / Andrea Cantarelli, with frequent vocalist Roberto Tiranti, to consider making a new album, and then play at the first Frontiers Metal Festival in the Fall of 2016.
Gathering a new crew, including awesome drummer John Macaluso (TNT, Riot, Ark, et al), keyboard player Oleg Smirnoff (Vision Divine, Eldritch), and bassist Nik Mazzucconi (Edge Of Forever), the band did both things.
And the new album “Architecture Of A God” it’s pretty fan-damn-tastic.

“Architecture Of A God” should be, easily, Labyrinth’s more accessible album to date. It’s melodic, polished, and with a production sound akin more the heavier side of melodic hard rock than prog metal.
It’s not until the third song ‘Take On My Legacy’ that you get any real raging gallop in a song. Then you need to wait until ‘Stardust And Ashes’, eight songs later, to get more full throttle metal. Mind you, I’m not complaining, because the rest of the songs are varied and interesting, and among the best the band ever recorded.

Still retaining some of their muscular sound, Labyrinth 2017 is plenty multi-part harmony vocal arrangements, stronger keyboard / synth presence, and more sharp rhythm guitars resulting in richness of the melody and groove that gives many of the songs a true AOR feeling.
Just check the the terrific midtempo ‘Still Alive’ (one of my favorites), ‘A New Dream’ with some acoustics into the mix and excellent melodious lead vocals, the really catchy ‘Someone Says’, the sweet and slightly proggy ‘We Belong To Yesterday’, and ‘Those Days’.

For those missing the ole, classic Labyrinth have an abundance of thrilling guitar work on ‘Bullets’, and then title track ‘Architecture Of A God’ is likely the most technical song on the CD, in the progressive metal sense.
It’s marked by twisting arrangements, a juxtaposition of subtle and powerful parts, killer drum fills and a sweet but small bass solo about two-thirds in before the leads fly.

Mostly, Labyrinth’s new album “Architecture Of A God” could best be described as commercial melodic metal with a strong current of hard rock groove and some progressive twists.
Yes, this ‘new’ Labyrinth will please a wide audience, offering both creative and entertaining music ranging from catchy choruses to some powerful refrains.
“Architecture Of A God” is a very, very strong and impressive return by Labyrinth, and album that surely will put them in everyone’s mouth this year and is HIGHLY Recommended by this blog.

01. Bullets
02. Still Alive
03. Take On My Legacy
04. A New Dream
05. Someone Says
06. Random Logic
07. Architecture of a God
08. Children (Robert Miles cover)
09. Those Days
10. We Belong to Yesterday
11. Stardust and Ashes
12. Diamond

Roberto Tiranti – Vocals (Wonderworld, ex-A Perfect Day)
Andrea Cantarelli – Guitars (A Perfect Day)
Olaf Thörsen – Guitars (Vision Divine)
Nik Mazzucconi – Bass (Edge of Forever)
John Macaluso – Drums (ex-TNT, Yngwie Malmsteen)
Oleg Smirnoff – Keyboards (ex-Vision Divine)

PRE ORDER:
www.amazon.de/Architecture-God-Labyrinth/dp/B06WP3JGY6
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