TRICK OR TREAT – Creepy Symphonies (2022)
Italian melodic metal band TRICK OR TREAT are back with a brand-new release called “Creepy Symphonies“. The classic movie & comic monsters are back and, guess what? Now they are more scared than us… This twisted parallel dimension is depicted on the album in true Trick Or Treat fashion, addressing topics like environmental issues, cyber-bullying and social media addiction with a unique uplifting twist.
Musically this is pure Trick Or Treat; it’s the hard ‘n heavy / melodic metal / accessible power the band has been famous for that sometimes reminds a lot of Helloween. It’s joyful, entertaining catchy metal with powerful clean vocals / choruses, polished guitar work, and stunning production sound.
“Trick Or Treat” is a quirky, spooky intro worthy of bearing the band’s name; building anticipation with tongue-in-cheek horror movie-esque nursery rhymes and the perfect ‘spoopy’ atmosphere. The title-track explodes out of this creepshow with classic up-tempo European power metal straight from the Helloween school of songwriting. Despite the joyful melodies and frenetic double-kick, this banger still maintains that spooktacularly Halloweeny vibe thanks to its playful spirit and lyrics about skeletons and scary monsters dancing.
The following ‘cool down’ tracks, “Have a Nice Judgment Day” and “Crazy” are just what the flow of the album need at that point. I’m telling you, replace Conti with Andi Deris for these numbers, and you have a spot-on Helloween impression along the lines of the Germans’ mid-tempo rock anthems like “Best Time” or “Do You Feel Good”.
The variety on ”Creepy Symphonies” makes its replay value 100%. After a rocketing power metal hymn and two catchy fist-pumpers, the balladic “Keep Alive” fits the bill for the token slow cut. It makes for a splendid halfway point.
Trick Or Treat then ensure that the latter half of the album doesn’t suffer from ‘latter half of the album’ syndrome. “Escape From Reality”, “Falling Over The Rainbow” and the multi-faceted “Queen Of Likes” pick the energy right back up and throw in some intriguing twists and turns to keep attention spans focused.
“Escape From Reality” has some unexpected chord progressions sprinkled throughout its typical metallic framework; “Falling Over The Rainbow” is surprisingly dramatic, especially in the chorus; and “Queen Of Likes” – despite being one of the best power metal songs of 2022 so far – is a scathing attack on social media with the kind of chuggy breakdown section we don’t see enough of in this genre.
If you hadn’t gathered that the lyrics on ”Creepy Symphonies” are based around pop culture and whimsical literary themes, then the waltzing “April” and the 12-minute epic “The Power Of Grayskull” make it blindingly obvious.
The former literally ends with a ‘Cowabunga!’, and the latter’s chorus is ‘BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL’. Any metalhead able to smile should have one huge skeletal smirk right about now. This finale far outshines anything of the same ambition the Italians have attempted in the past, with some technical twists and alarmingly heavy sections jutting out to grab your attention.
With a structure as well put-together as this, plenty of variety, and musicians all playing on top form (Conti, in particular, is full of character and vibrancy), ”Creepy Symphonies” is bound to be on power metal year-end lists come December.
This is a big step up from previous album ‘XII Saints’, and a pretty damn high bar for the quintet to reach next time.
When the clock strikes midnight, we’ll hear creepy symphonieeees!
Highly Recommended
01 – Trick or Treat
02 – Creepy Symphony
03 – Have a Nice Judgment Day
04 – Crazy
05 – Peter Pan Syndrome (Keep Alive)
06 – Escape from Reality
07 – Falling over the Rainbow
08 – Queen of Likes
09 – April
10 – The Power of Grayskull
Alessandro Conti – Vocals
Leone Villani Conti – Bass
Guido Benedetti – Guitars
Luca Venturelli – Guitars
Luca Setti – Drums
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