Malmsteen's "Trilogy". Rainbow. Rhapsody. Glory. Signum Regis is a typical band/disc of its type. Neoclassical heavy metal alternating between heavy rock and power influences. Vocalist Goran Edman reflects more personality onto the music than otherwise would have been apparent had someone else been slotted in his place. Just by being part of the roster boosts the album's enjoyment factor quite a bit. The real center of the Signum universe is the bassist Ronnie Koing, who had these songs laying around that would not fit with his current band Vindex, so an assembly of other musicians and a new band banner were needed. And here it is.
"Trilogy-esque" "Sirens Roar" closes the album in high class with insightfully sweet guitar melodies ripping up amongst the dark liquid electric quickening of the main verses that give way to their own blistering guitars. Japan's bonus track, "Endless Road" has speed fury syndrome and also a certain effortless power rippling through it as it attempts to smash its own path battered from the music. "Passionate Love" has this hypnotic guitar riff as its main theme and a soaring atmosphere coaxed into varying heights by Edman's expressive voice. The guitar's squeezing purity gives the song a certain emotional weight in its layers beyond just additional frivolity. A dash of Rainbow here in the bluesy rock base that serves in the shadows.
"Forever and a Day" is a pompy epic Blind Guardian overtoned creation that is mixed in Rhapsody keyboard progminded bits. There's a quickening thickness that occurs before the change is brought on. A bit of the Flamenco guitars give a strange exotic flair. "Neverland" is neoclassical thunderbolts, all its business is with heavy riffing, chugging rhythms and topped by a blazing light show of a chorus. The guitar solo mixes a crystal classical feeling with deeper darkness that echos a dash of Dio's mystical grandiose manner.
The remains are mostly Malmsteen/Rhapsody crossed knockoffs. They are running over with guitars and the songs themselves seem to be an afterthought. Excessive musical noodling, tracks that sound so similar that their variations make little difference. Cut a solo here, paste one there - a lightning driving, Goran wailing something to do with apocalypse or consequences, all tangled up in elementary elemental mysticism and fantasy visions. Quick precise 80s born neoclassical metal, with the barest glimpses from the foul winds of modern influences.
Its pretty much like Yngwie, this Regis thing - and you could end the train of thought right there. That's plenty of information for potential buyers looking into this Signum Regis state of affairs. Whether you match it to "Rising Force", "Marching Out", or the likeliest culprit, the much stolen from "Trilogy" - this is a disc made by those who wish with all their hearts that they WERE Yngwie and crew and that this IS 1986 (a few modifications of course to allow for those Rhapsody tidbits). Or perhaps they are willing to settle for Yngwie's long lost but equally musically inclined - brother, or second cousin, or what not. The lyrics are typical ending/saving the world nonsense that has ambition but no substance. Songs themselves give over to speed thrills and guitar thrills. That's fine for some but the rest of us get that lingering whiff of deja vu, and wonder where it is we have heard this all before, and done perhaps a bit better. It is certainly not "bad" but neither is anyone going to hail Signum Regis as the new leaders in the neoclassical/power genre.Written by
Alanna Friday, January 30, 2009
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