Labyrinth (band)
| labyrinth | |
|---|---|
 Labyrinth live at the Evolution Festival , July 14, 2006 |
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| General information | |
| origin | Massa , Italy |
| Genre (s) | Power metal , progressive metal |
| founding | 1991 |
| Website | www.labyrinthmusic.it |
| Founding members | |
| Fabio "Joe Terry" Lione (until 1996) | |
| Carloandrea "Olaf Thorsen" Magnani (until 2002) | |
guitar |
Andrea Cantarelli |
| Andrea Bartoletti (until 1994) | |
| Frank Andiver (until 1996) | |
| Current occupation | |
Vocals, bass |
Roberto "Rob Tyrant" Tiranti (1997–1998, since 1999) |
guitar |
Andrea "Anders Rain" Cantarelli |
guitar |
Olaf Thorsen (since 2009) |
Drums |
Alessandro "Bix" Bissa (since 2010) |
| Andrea "Andrew McPauls" De Paoli (since 1997) | |
| former members | |
bass |
Cristiano "Chris Breeze" Bertocchi (1995-2006) |
singing |
Adolfo "Morby" Morviducci (1998/99) |
Keyboard |
Ken Taylor (1991-1996) |
Labyrinth is an Italian power metal band that was founded in 1991 and is considered formative for the Italian representatives of this style. Founding members were u. a. Fabio Lione , who later became the singer of Rhapsody of Fire, and Olaf Thorsen , who later founded Vision Divine .
history
The band was founded in 1991 in Massa . Shortly after the founding, keyboardist Ken Taylor joined the line-up, which remained unchanged for three years. In 1994 the first demo, Midnight Resistance, was recorded, which received good reviews in the international press and brought the band a record deal with the Underground Symphony label . Before the recording of the debut EP Piece of Time , bassist Andrea Bartoletti left the band and was replaced by Chris Breeze alias Cristiano Bertocchi. The EP also got good reviews and at that time offered a new kind of Power Metal with keyboard accompaniment. It was followed in 1996 by the album debut No Limits , which was also published overseas and in the Japanese magazine Burrn! took first place in the readers' charts for months. After the album was released, the band split from their singer "Joe Terry" alias Fabio Tordiglione , who joined the band Rhapsody a little later .
In 1997 Frank Andiver and Ken Taylor, who had been with the company since 1991, also left Labyrinth and turned to other projects. Roberto “Rob Tyrant” Tiranti, Andrea “Andrew McPauls” De Paoli and Mattia “Mat” Stancioiu joined as new members on vocals, keyboards and drums. In the meantime, the band signed a new contract with the US label Metal Blade and released their second album Return to Heaven Denied in 1998 . In the same year the band also performed at the famous Gods of Metal festival in Milan . Rob Tyrant left the band after this album and was briefly represented by Adolfo “Morby” Morviducci, Domine's lead singer . Morviducci also did a European tour with the band with Hammerfall , Primal Fear and Pegazus . This was followed by a six-month tour of Italy with the band Heimdall. After these tours the band recorded the EP Timeless Crime , for which demo material was reprocessed.
In 1999 Rob Tyrant returned to the band; the band played again this year at numerous summer festivals such as the Gods of Metal and the Dynamo Open Air . In 2000 the band began recording albums; even before the third work was published in August, she performed a. a. at the Wacken Open Air and the Spanish Rock Machina Festival. The album Sons of Thunder then reached number 26 in the Italian album charts and number 56 in Japan, the band's biggest sales success to date. The band completed a tour through South America in autumn accompanied by Vision Divine , the side project of Olaf Thorsen and Fabio Lione. In 2001, after a tour in Italy, the band undertook two indoor tours through Europe, first as supporting act for Helloween and then before Nocturnal Rites and Iron Savior .
Olaf Thorsen has been part of the team again since September 2009. The band has started work on Return to Heaven Denied Part II: A Midnight Autumn's Dream .
In 2002 the band undertook another tour of Italy in the form of a festival called "Italian Attack" with Domine , White Skull , Skylark , Novembre and Centurion . In May work began on the next album; paradoxically, Olaf Thorsen left the band at this time in order to be able to devote themselves fully to Vision Divine, while Andrea De Paoli and Mattia Stancioiu gave up their work at Vision Divine in favor of Labyrinth. First, a demo recording was recorded, which led to the band's contract with Century Media . Subsequently, in January 2003, the recordings for the album began. On the new self-titled work, the band members used their Italian names instead of English pseudonyms for the first time. Instead of Olaf Thorsen, Pier Gonella joined the band as the new guitarist after the album was released in June . Gonella made their debut at the Agglutination Metal Festival in Chiaromonte , where the band headlined along with Vader and Virgin Steele . A continuously extended tour followed, which only ended in spring 2004.
Immediately began work on the next album, which was laid out less quickly after the departure of Olaf Thorsen. In 2004 the band also undertook extensive trips, including an Asian tour with performances in Japan, China and Taiwan; Festival appearances in Europe followed. Meanwhile, a new contract with the label Arise Records was signed, which brought the new album "Freeman" in March 2005 on the market. The year’s tour activities were essentially limited to Italy, where the band made numerous appearances with well-known bands such as Dream Theater and Angra . In 2006 Cristiano Bertocchi announced his departure from the band in order to devote himself to solo activities. Roberto Tiranti took over the bass in addition to the vocals. The band made few appearances that year and most of the time worked on new material recorded at the famous Abbey Road Studios made famous by the Beatles . The album "6 Days to Nowhere" was released on February 28, 2007 via Scarlet Records , and a tour is planned for September.
On July 21, 2010 the seventh studio album Return to Heaven Denied Part II: A Midnight Autumn's Dream was released , which is musically and lyrically based on Return to Heaven Denied , which was released in 1998, and distances itself from the progressive and Nu-Metal elements of its two predecessors. Songs like Shooting Star or Painting on the Wall also use themes from the previous album by name. Furthermore, Labyrinth were asked personally by Iron Maiden to open their show in Codroipo on August 17th, 2010 as the opening act. The band was able to prevail against many, also internationally known, bands.
style
In contrast to other metal bands from Italy such as Athena , Vision Divine , Rhapsody of Fire or others such as Skylark, Spellblast or Seven Gates , networked by the band's founder Fabio Lione , Labyrinth do not play symphonic or at least pure Power Metal. The existing comparisons with Rhapsody of Fire have since lagged, if only because each of Fabio Lione's former bands developed independently: Vision Divine turned to progressive metal and stayed that way even after Lione got back in, Athena went the other way and became progressive Power Metal to Symphonic Power Metal. Labyrinth finally developed their style from Power Metal with electronic elements through synthesizers ( Midnight Resistance , Piece of Time , No Limits ) to slightly progressive Speed Metal with virtuoso guitar solos, incisive bass lines and melancholic keyboard playing ( Return to Heaven Denied ). Roberto Tiranti, Lione's successor, has since influenced the band's sound with his soulful voice reminiscent of Daniel Gildenlöw . The style was expanded again to Timeless Crime and Sons of Thunder . The Power Metal elements became much stronger, the melancholic and "wide" sound of Return to Heaven Denied remained slightly weakened in its form, but still quite recognizable.
With the self-titled album from 2003, they began to experiment with progressive elements like the "related" Vision Divine. The highlight was “6 Days to Nowhere”, released in 2007, which was only reminiscent of the band's “classic” phase ( Return to Heaven Denied , Timeless Crime , Sons of Thunder , and also the labyrinth ). In addition to blast beats , out of tune guitars and the lack of frequent solos that are characteristic of the band, both the cover artwork and the clearly socially critical and aggressive song lyrics represent a break in the band's discography. Nevertheless, the specialist press also interpreted these albums as typically Italian Power metal. The still existing comparison with Rhapsody of Fire limped all the more.
Return to Heaven Denied Part II: A Midnight Autumn's Dream follows the examples of other bands ( Gamma Ray , Helloween, Rhapsody of Fire, Dream Theater in approaches) to make a successor to the most successful, best-known and / or most popular album. Both musically and lyrically, Return to Heaven Denied Part II: A Midnight Autumn's Dream can be seen as the successor to Return to Heaven Denied , which was released in 1998 . The break in style between Freeman and 6 Days to Nowhere was completely taken out of the band's musical concept.
Discography
- Midnight Resistance (demo, 1994)
- Piece of Time (EP, 1995)
- No Limits (1996)
- Return to Heaven Denied (1998)
- Timeless Crime (MCD, 1999)
- Sons of Thunder (2000)
- Labyrinth (2003)
- Freeman (2005)
- 6 Days to Nowhere (2007)
- Return to Heaven Denied Part II: A Midnight Autumn's Dream (2010)
- Architecture of a God (2017)
Web links
- Official website (English).
- Labyrinth on the label site (Engl.)