LABYRINTH – In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye (2025) *HQ*
Renowned Italian metallers LABYRINTH are releasing “In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye”, their 3rd album under the wings of Frontiers Records – and once again this experienced combo delivers a complete piece of work. Turning their music heavier than in the past but keeping the classic metal attitude with unforgettable hooks, epic prog-infused metal songs, and some great melodic hard rockin’ catchy numbers, constitute a record with a wide appeal of listeners.
Starting with opener ‘Welcome Twilight’ with its Epic Latin choruses, through songs like ‘Out Of Place’ and ‘The Right Side Of This World’, you can find the band’s trademark clear sound, with a stellar performance and detailed production.
Labÿrinth are masters of their art, no doubt about that, and the consummate musicianship of every member is on full display. The compositions are fun and varied, and feature different approach from power metal drumming on some tracks to some classic hard rock songs.
“Welcome Twilight” comes to life with a doomy, heavy riff and floor tom groove, modulating into a gallop where a labyrinthine keyboard/guitar arpeggio twists and turns above. Settling into a double-time feel, guitar maestro Olaf Thörsen’s high-speed precision picking then sets the backdrop for Roberto Tiranti’s expressive vocals. The epic chorus kicks in with dramatic Latin chanting and a memorable hook while the rhythm section keeps a breakneck pace. I have to imagine that seeing these guys live with the strobe lights going while drummer Matt Peruzzi employs his rapid-fire kick bursts would send anyone into an epileptic fit.
There’s a technicality typical of the genre, but ”In the Vanishing Echoes of Goodbye” also showcases more of a heavier side of Labÿrinth with “Heading To Nowhere”, a track that features some clear thrash influence and a riff that wouldn’t feel amiss on an Annihilator disc, and “Accept The Changes” which begins with a minor-key lick and a dark, broody symphonic metal element – but also some decidedly ’80s AOR sensibilities with “Out Of Place” and “The Right Side Of This World”: anthemic sing-along choruses and synth stabs aplenty.
“The Healing” presents one of the album’s two power ballads, and it’s brilliantly produced, exhibiting emotional acoustic guitar with excellent cymbal work atop, a hard-hitting sorrowful chorus and tasteful fadeout. The second one, “To The Son I Never Had” is an evocative narrative piece of life advice from a man to his ostensibly hypothetical son; it’s well executed and a more mellow, sentimental, zippo-lighters-swaying-in-the-air type of ballad with only a slight deviation into a hard rocking interlude about 2/3rds of the way through for an inspirational guitar solo.
The production on this album is massive. Each snare hit resonates through your cranial cavity as the kick drums send mighty pressure waves through your chest.
The track listing is purposeful and most songs stand out with increasingly catchy refrains and the oft-featured instantly appealing twin-guitar melodies in true Iron Maiden fashion. The lyrical work is often introspective but sometimes turns outwards to society at large; however, the band struggles to find a way to address it in a manner that avoids coming off as trite.
Labÿrinth stated that the record was inspired by the worldwide political turmoil brought about in the wake of the recent pandemic. This latter element is addressed haphazardly in the track “Mass Distraction” where a verse about misinformation includes the line “I recognize bullshit from a thousand miles away” – and “Inhuman Race”, where a clumsily-added, newsroom voiceover about an American “specialized combat vehicle” supplied to Ukraine and captured by Russia during the ongoing war, remarks on its potential consequences over tinkly piano and saccharine falsetto vocalization.
By the way, musically “Mass Distraction”, is pure melodic hard rock with great pulse.
‘In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye’ is an unrelenting and uncompromising release jam-packed with anthemic choruses and hair-raising guitar leads, proving once again why Labÿrinth are principal players in the Euro metal scene.
Highly Recommended
01. Welcome Twilight
02. Accept The Changes
03. Out Of Place
04. At The Rainbow’s End
05. The Right Side Of This World
06. The Healing
07. Heading For Nowhere
08. Mass Distraction
09. To The Son I Never Had
10. Inhuman Race
Roberto Tiranti – Vocals
Olaf Thorsen – Guitars
Andrea Cantarelli – Guitars
Oleg Smirnoff – Keyboards
Nik Mazzucconi – Bass
Mattia Peruzzi – Drums
BUY
www.amazon.co.uk/VANISH-ECHOES-GOODBYE-LABYRINTH/dp/B0DM2H51PX
