review: Ainur -- prog power for fans of Tolkien

Ainur

War of the Jewels

Rockshots Records

19 March 2021

Ainur is a Tolkien-based film score-type of prog melodic project. The official information shows the debut album in 2006, with three more after that, including the last studio album in 2013. The following is the 2021 album personnel: Luca Catalano (composer, guitars, vocals); Marco Catalano (composer, drums, vocals); Alex Armuschio (composer, keys, lead vocals); Max Clara (lead vocals); Roberta Malerba (lead vocals); Elena Richetta (lead vocals); Giuseppe Ferrante (bass, contrabass); Luca Marangoni (violin); Carlo Perillo (viola); Daniela Lorusso (cello); Cristiano Blasi (flutes); Chiara Marangoni (horns); Wilma Collo (lyrics). The album lasts almost 74 minutes, designed for patient audiences in favor of the celebration of everything epic prog power and of metal operas. Highly ambitious, this work seeks to give the listener everything: male and female sing-ing, musicality, skills, and prog songwriting. It is almost impossible to imagine that metal opera fans would not take an interest in this work. However, there is one matter of which some meticulous listeners might want to take note. With such an impressive work, it stands out how subpar the drum sound is. This project does have a drummer in its ranks and said person is part of the creative force, as already shown in the personnel list above. They care very much about the songwriting and just about everything else, but not enough to use the real drums of the drummer and his actual drum work. It looks like they just chose to go with the lifeless, plastic-toy, pillow-soft programmed/sampled drumming. For fans that don’t care about this issue, the album should be a highlight of the year, but if you listen closely to the so-called drumming on here, it won’t take long to bug you enough to make you reconsider the album as a whole. Doesn’t it seem that if there are resources (for such a recording on a label) that it would not be such a tall task to figure out how to use your drummer’s real work and real drums and find a person to help record it?

AINUR - Spirit Of Fire (feat. Ted Nasmith & Roberto Tiranti) OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO

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