Denied - When the slate becomes diamonds 3.5/5
Reviewed: 8-8-08
Tracklist:
1. The dawn
2. When the slate becomes diamonds
3. Denied
4. The waste remains and kills
5. Ride to the land of the machine guns
6. Before then after later
7. Horrorama
8. Quest for deliverance
9. Circle of fire
10. Bearers of the slate
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Out of Italy, Denied brings us their full-length debut 'When the slate becomes diamonds', and it's a CD that I know a lot of metal fans are going to have some fun with. Their style is traditional heavy/power metal and to get right to the point, they're comparable to Deafening Silence, Iron Maiden, Mesmerize, Running Wild, Ilium, Hellowed, Stainless Steel, Thunderbolt, Twisted Tower Dire, Iron Fire, Halor and countless others. Actually though, if I had to pick one band comparison, it would definitely be Wolf, as this debut is upbeat and it emanates the same sense of excitement that Wolf's CDs do.
Vocally, Denied is fronted by Stefano Bottari, who, unlike the vocalists from some of the many aforementioned bands, has a high voice that instantly grabs your attention. This dude's vocals quickly grow on you and you can't help like his unique yet strong performance. Actually, every time I listen to the CD I think of the earliest CDs from Crystal Eyes, as the vocals are similar and just like with Crystal Eyes, there are a lot of backing vocals, especially in the choruses. The band seems to have a lot of fun with what they're doing, and it transfers to the listener. Hell, we even get some machine gun sound-effects in track 5 "Ride to the land of the machine guns"!
So 'When the slate becomes diamonds' is far from a boring and plodding CD, and as you would guess, there are plenty of sweet guitar solos. All wrapped up, this is an enjoyable traditional heavy/power metal CD and although they don't offer us anything we haven't heard before, what they do provide is a very well-executed CD for the style. In fact, this is probably as good as any of the CDs from both Crystal Eyes and Wolf. So even though nobody's going to be blown away by originality, fans of the style and of any of the many previously mentioned bands should pick this up right away, as it contains everything needed to create a fun traditional heavy/power metal CD.
CLINT
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