The 7the Guild - power metal goes to the opera

The 7the Guild

Triumviro

Scarlet Records

21 February 2025

THE 7TH GUILD

Tomi Fooler - vocals

Giacomo Voli - vocals

Ivan Giannini - vocals

Simone Mularoni - guitar

Francesco Ferraro - bass

Daniele Mazza - orchestras and arrangements

Alessio Lucatti - keyboards and piano

Michael Ehrè - drums

Holy Land 5:17

The 7th Guild 5:01

Glorious 5:38

La Promessa Cremisi 5:14

In Nomine Patris 6:35

Time 3:00

Guardians Of Eternity 5:24

The Metal Charade 5:21

Fairy Tale 6:21

Excess. More is more. Over the top. Who's to say what is too much, though? Take musicals as an example. Musicals as an artform are pretty extreme: Sing throughout the entire work? Sure, why not! Or, even the violin can be extreme. The Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) enjoyed dazzling audiences with violin techniques and compositions that went overboard, to say the least. Paganini makes me ask, “What are you doing?!” Or, opera: Richard Wagner (1813–1883) pleased and upset plenty of people with the exorbitant quantity of ideas and genres shoved into super long operas. I’ve never had endurance to get through Wagner in one sitting; only in portions.

Speaking of opera, this work right here brings together three melodic singers from Italy and lets them run amuck with an album that celebrates singing big time, featuring Skeletoon's Tomi Fooler, Rhapsody of Fire's Giacomo Voli and Ivan Giannini (ex-Vision Divine, Derdian). This has everything that Italian power/melodic metal has come to be known for: catchy songs and sugary melodies, except that here, all of it is increased to a higher level with three singers thinking: "Go for it. Let's see what happens!" Well, we see what happened. It's a superabundance of power metal operatic singing, that's what. In addition, the guitars are very melodic, too, for fans wanting to hear an album in which every song sounds like a hit. Having said that, to avoid any misunderstanding, this music still sounds like power metal, and not an actual musical (like West Side Story or The Sound of Music), a theater play or an opera. Therefore, fans of melodic singing should get a kick out of this album. This is very much in the genre of power metal, with an Italian opera flavor!

A little trivia: One of the songs is called "Time," and it must be a type of tribute to an important person in the metal opera field: Tobias Sammet from Edguy and Avantasia. The song must be a tribute to Tobias Sammet because "Time" sounds remarkably like Tobias Sammet's Edguy song "Another Time," from the 1999 album Theater of Salvation, so much so that this Italian project even borrows the lyric "I can't take it for granted," making this new ballad an open tribute, a nod to German power metal incarnate in the person of Tobias Sammet, whose contributions to melodic metal have endured for decades. In total, this entire album is a huge celebration of singing, melodies, catchy songs and power metal in general. I get the feeling this album is just the beginning. The album includes three important singers in melodic metal in Italy today, but there are other good singers in Italian metal currently. This can be a beginning, right?! There has to be more of these albums, right?! Right?!

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