Artist: A Perfect Day
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2012
Runtime: 51:42
Rating: 4/5
A Perfect Day is a side project of Labyrinth guitarist Andrea Cantarelli. Look at the rest of the lineup and you could almost call it a Labyrinth side project, since the other two spots are filled by Italian »vocal tornado« Roberto Tiranti, who this time wields a bass guitar too, and drummer Alessandro Bissa (also of Vision Divine).
While Labyrinth are known for their infectious symphonic power metal bombast, A Perfect Day is built on melodic, sharply cut hard rock, and fans of the Allen / Lande project will get along with its idiom very quickly. Roberto Tiranti’s vocals at times sound like the Italian version of Russell Allen (Symphony X): incredibly versatile in the mid-range, where he flips from clean vocals to gritty ones, and above all his explosive power in the highest registers keeps stunning anew with every performance. Tiranti’s voice is a key element in bringing in melody and cementing its reach in the musical language of A Perfect Day. The middle line is often harmonized with a higher vocal line, so the choruses in particular gain in bombast and feel almost like a vocal duet on the album.
And here’s where this album parts ways with the generally predictable hard rock template of similar records. The production. It ties into the post-grunge bands of the new millennium like Alter Bridge, and also the somewhat older Staind. The guitar is deliberately crunchy, thickened and smeared into a wall of riffs that covers most of the album’s soundscape. The density of the backing is dressed up with acoustic guitar, which fills out and enriches the sound (Long Road To Ruin, Under the Same Sun, Silent Cry,..), as well as with keyboard touches.
In this setting Tiranti really stands out in the improvised bits. A lot more than with Labyrinth, and he also brings a noticeable dose of soul coloring to his performance, which deepens the hard rock character of this release . The lead vocals are also decorated with extra – and for that purpose run through distortion – »backing vocal lines«.
The members are seasoned old hands and move around the studio with ease. The excellent production confirms it, and a big part of what makes this release convincing is the fact that the trio carried the great chemistry they have in Labyrinth over to this album. It’s rare for three people in the same band to click on the same wavelength like that, and it gives them the foundation to launch their own side project. Experience shows that musicians from different bands team up for projects like this. Either way, there must have been great harmony among these three from the start, and openness to the compositions Cantarelli prepared in their basic form.
This is an album full of strong, clearly defined compositional highlights, where melody has the final say. The peaks are the vocal lines, where Tiranti’s excellent, authoritative voice is capitalized on to the maximum, and in this new musical environment he delivers qualities that Labyrinth basically have no room for. Cantarelli of course also equipped the songs with transitional guitar flourishes and solos, which don’t take away from the primacy of the massive wall-of-sound guitar riff. The album is led by a rich, gripping atmospheric backdrop, occasionally pushed into depressive territory (Silent Cry).
The debut »A Perfect Day« is a pleasant surprise. It doesn’t deliver a musical revolution, but it sounds inspired and potent, so it grabs you by the ears on the very first listen. Its blend of atmospheric and melodic appeal is excellent, and for fans of classic hard rock who enjoy a bit of modern production sensibility, it’s a creation worth checking out in every respect.
Lineup
Roberto Tiranti – vocals, bass guitar
Andrea Cantarelli – guitar, keyboards
Alessandro Bissa – drums
Production
Andrea Cantarelli
Track list
1. Another Perfect Day
2. Now And Forever
3. Long Road To Ruin
4. Alone And Free (Rockblind)
5. Silent Cry
6. Under The Same Sun
7. Here We Are Again
8. Waiting On The Edge
9. Warm Embrace
10. We Only Say Goodbye
