PERSEUS – Into The Silence (2024) *HQ*

Escape Music has signed Italian band PERSEUS for the release of their new album “Into The Silence“. The CD will be a limited edition to 1000 copies only, numbered.
Perseus was formed in 2011 in Brindisi (Puglia, Southern Italy) from the ashes of two local bands: “Hastings” (prog-metal, openers for Athena and Eldritch) and “Defenders of the Faith” (Judas Priest tribute band), and their musical style mixes melodic metal, sympho, power, and more.
Within an already well-explored genre, Perseus carved out their own personal space, taking inspiration from the old metal school of bands like Judas Priest, Manowar and Queensryche, without disdaining influences from more avant-garde acts such as Kamelot, Rhapsody Of Fire and Labyrinth.
The Italian melodic tradition of harmonies and elaborated melodies are mixed with powerful riffs. The more intimate moments of the songs are highlighted using acoustic guitars and keyboards. To provide more variation, there are no fewer than nine guest vocalists singing duets with Perseus vocalist Antonio Abate.

One of the strongest areas of the record is the songwriting. As expected from an album with many guests involved, there’s a fair bit of variety, with plenty of up-tempo power metal, some epic symphonic metal, a couple of tracks that mix in some acoustics, a lighter symphonic metal track, and three slower, ballad-type tracks, all placed right next to each other around the middle of the album.

Unsurprisingly, the album opens up with a fairly typical intro, with lots of ambient keys, before things fully kick off with the explosive title track. Some nice, retro-sounding keys lead the way into a fast-moving, bass-heavy opening verse, led by pounding drums and soaring vocals, before the chorus kicks in and speeds things up further, while nicely mixing together keys, guitars, and some awesome vocals. The track has a very classic metal feel to it, featuring guest vocalist Labyrinth’s frontman Roberto Tiranti, whose smooth and powerful voice sounds as awesome as always.

The quick pace continues with “Strange House”, a slightly more progressive track, which also introduces some epic symphonic arrangements, a recurring element throughout the album. The track starts off at a moderate tempo, slowly building momentum throughout a rather light and atmospheric opening verse, before launching into full speed and going all out for a huge, epic and very catchy chorus. I’ve never heard guest vocalist Wild Steel (from Shadows of Steel) before, but he has a very smooth voice and really shines on the chorus. While it’s another keyboard-driven track for the most part, there’s a big guitar solo in the second half, with a bit of a classic heavy metal feel to it, and it’s quite impressive.

One track that very much feels like it was written with a particular singer in mind is “The Kingdom”, an epic hybrid, which has some of the heaviest guitar work on the album, while still maintaining the strong key presence and going all out with symphonic arrangements. Unlike most other track, there’s also a strong folk presence. The track moves at a moderate, slightly upbeat tempo throughout the verses, before speeding up for another huge, incredibly epic and catchy chorus, with some fantastic vocals. As for the guest? Well, when talking about this kind of hybrid track on an Italian power metal album, of course, it has to be none other than Wind Rose vocalist Francesco Cavalieri, a personal favorite of mine, and he sounds absolutely phenomenal on this track

Next is “The Picture of My Time”, which slows things down to a more relaxed tempo, while still having an upbeat feel to it. It’s the lightest, most melodic track on the first half of the album, very much falling into symphonic metal territory. It has a catchy chorus and very light, calm verses, while keys and symphonic elements lead the way throughout.

It’s all guns blazing once again with “Defenders of Light”, the speediest, most frantic track on the album, with drums firing off at a blistering pace throughout, while the guitars are also heavier than normal at points, along with some nice melodic leads. The chorus is absolutely fantastic, very epic and melodic, while also having an extra layer of intensity compared to other tracks. The guest vocalist this time is Marco Pastorino from Temperance, and his fiery, powerful vocals really help make this the most intense track on the album, as well as another one of my favorites.

“Twilight”, a sort of power ballad with a classic hard rock/heavy metal feel to it. It has some heavy guitars during the verses, which maintain that classic rock feel, while the chorus is light, melodic, and somewhat theatrical, with some pretty epic vocal melodies. Former Dragonhammer vocalist Max Aguzzi is the guest on this track, and his rather raw, powerful vocals match up nicely with the more smooth-sounding Abate. Closing out this section is a more typical love ballad, “I Believe In Love”, which has some light, melodic guitar work, as well as soft keys and some symphonic elements. The vocals are obviously the highlight, with the chorus in particular being quite beautiful and very well sung, with some excellent operatic vocals from Elegy of Madness vocalist Anja Irullo.

Moving into the final stretch, “Warrior” starts off with some acoustic melodies before speeding up a bit and turning into a big metal track, with light folk elements. Verses are fairly mid-paced, light, and melodic, while the chorus picks up the tempo with frantic drums, heavy guitar work, and big symphonic arrangements. The vocal melodies are fantastic, and the lyrics switch seamlessly between English and Italian. Elvenking vocalist Damna is on hand for this track and does an amazing job as always, on a song that fits his voice perfectly.

Closing out the album is “Cruel Game”, featuring Infinita Symphonia vocalist Luca Micioni. It’s a very epic, upbeat track with some nice melodic guitar work, as well as some of the most epic symphonic arrangements on the entire album. The verses have a slight edge to them, with some heavy riffs, while the chorus goes all out, with an epic symphonic power metal sound and is one of the best choruses on the album. I don’t really notice the guest vocals too much, but Abate shines, as always, and the track is one of my favorites overall, so it’s a great way to end the album.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from ”Into the Silence”, but it ended up being an excellent melodic metal album, with plenty of symphonic / power elements, a bit of folk, and plenty of nice sounding keys, to go along with a stellar vocal performance by Antonio Abate as well as some excellent work from all the guest vocalists involved.
There’s a good amount of variety to the tracks, so fans of different types of metal should find a lot to enjoy here, and performances and songwriting are strong across the board.
Highly Recommended

01 – The Clash of the Titans
02 – Into the Silence
03 – Strange House
04 – The Kingdom
05 – The Picture of My Time
06 – Defenders of Light
07 – Il Labirinto Delle Ombre
08 – Twilight
09 – I Believe in Love
10 – Warrior
11 – Cruel Game

Antonio Abate: Vocals
Cristian Guzzo: Guitars
Gabriele Pinto: Guitars
Alex Anelli: Bass
Andrea Mariani: Drums

Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth, Wonderworld) – Vocals (2)
Andrea De Stefanis (Shadows of Steel, Wild Steel) – Vocals (3)
Francesco Cavalieri (Wind Rose) – Vocals (4)
Marco Pastorino (Temperance, Serenity) – Vocals (6)
Max Aguzzi (ex-Dragonhammer) – Vocals (8)
Davide Moras (Elvenking) – Vocals (10)
Claudia Beltrame (Silent Angel) – Vocals (5)
Anja Irullo (ex-Elegy of Madness) – Vocals (9)
Luca Micioni (Infinita Symphonia) – Vocals (11)
Aldo Lonobile (Edge of Forever, Secret Sphere) – Guitars (2)
Antonio Agate (Sweet Oblivion, Timo Tolkki’s Avalon) – Keyboards, Orchestrations

BUY
www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Silence-Perseus/dp/B0CWWZ6HG3