Moonlight Haze

Moonlight Haze

De Rerum Natura

Scarlet Records

21 June 2019

Moonlight Haze (Italy) is a new name in symphonic power metal, but the personnel comes from established names like Temperance, Elvenking, Sound Storm, Teodasia and Overtures. They apparently only began in 2018 with singer Chiara Tricarico and drummer Giulio Capone, and now they have Marco Falanga and Alberto Felinato on guitars, and Alessandro Jacobi on bass. The new music is fully concentrated on the writing memorable songs that can gain favorable audiences quickly. It takes the template of power metal and adds operatic singing and the sweet sounds of keyboards, and keeps the music fun and animated through a variety of uptempos, with lots of power metal and pop symphonic melodies. Some songs have more of a guitar-based energy, while others work the sound of the keyboards. Even though the album maintains a good pace of upward vibes, they have worked on making the songs develop their own feel. Only one song, the penultimate track “A Shelter from the Storm,” is a true ballad that calls for the lighters to come out during the shows.

The songs are the star show, of course, but in this genre the style and quality of the singing is of high importance. Longtime fans already know Chiara Tricarico from her work with Temperance, amongst others. On this particular album we hear various shades of singing, sometimes we hear the voice at an almost speaking voice in which it seems effortless, in a good way. Sometimes the voice goes for that angelic, ever so soft tone, while at other times it sounds more intense, though still melodic. Naturally, what would a symphonic power metal album featuring Ms. Tricarico be without some glass-shattering operatic singing?! For instance, the song “Time” is a guitar-focused song and the chugging is quite heavy for this style, and it is one context in which the glass-shattering operatic singing shows up, to great effect. This song, by the way, also has a bit of male growling, too. At any rate, this is only the debut. They are just getting warmed up.

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