STORMLORD - Hesperia
October 6, 2013, 10 years ago
(Trollzorn Records)
Six-headed Italian epic metal band STORMLORD’s fifth full-length release, Hesperia, is a concept album inspired by the Aeneid, the Latin epic poem written by Roman poet Virgil between 29 and 19 BC. At the time, Italy was referred to as Hesperia (“Western Land”) by the Greeks because to them its territory was far west. The band’s sound is a cross-pollination of black, death, gothic, folk, symphonic and epic power metal, all rolled into to one complete package. Keyboard-driven melodies mixed with dense riffs and majestically-crafted guitar solos in the vein of CRADLE OF FILTH, DIMMU BORGIR and BATHORY make up the eight battle hymns on Hesperia. Some parts are sung in various languages, including English, Italian and ancient Latin, as is the case of the latter on CD-opener, ’Aeneas.’ Stormlord tends to get overlooked while mentioning Italian metal bands due to the fact that you can’t really place them neatly into a definite metal-genre box. It’s also hard to believe they’ve been around for 20 years. Vocalist Cristiano Borchi’s harsh, blackish screeches mixed with guitarist Gianpaolo Caprino’s “cleaner” growls blend surprisingly well with the band’s blackened symphonic power metal style. Stormlord keeps things interesting on Hesperia with loads of musical peaks and valleys splendidly interwoven with various metal sub-genres.
