Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: July 10, 2020
Production: Olaf Thorsen
Album length: 47.58 min
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal / Melodic Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
Some projects happen when the time is right. Nonsense. Everything happens when the time is right. The right time. Still, if you pile on a bunch of obligations that take priority for the main players behind Shining Black, quite a few chances for a timely launch can slip through the cracks. So six whole years went by since the first idea. Back then, Mark Boals, a top-notch American vocalist who once sang for Denmark’s Royal Hunt, the moody Swede Yngwie J. Malmsteen and the superstar lineup Ring of Fire, was already hooked up with the Italian melodic metallers Labyrinth, who have been led since way back in 1991 by Carlo Andrea Magnani, stage name Olaf Thorsen. Labyrinth even played Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna in late February 2011, opening the night before Finland’s Sonata Arctica, and at the last minute vocalist Roberto Tiranti returned to the lineup. With him, the band put out their still-current (and latest) studio album “Architecture of a God” (2017).
Thorsen, whom some of you may also know as a member and guitarist of Vision Divine, had been stashing away ideas, and with some nudging from the top brass at Frontiers Music Srl., they finally found room to come to life in the Shining Black project. Boals hasn’t lost one iota of his proven vocal firepower. Once again he blows everything to smithereens with his unbelievably commanding musical punch, charisma and brilliant technical polish. Honestly, “Shining Black” sounds like a new Labyrinth album, except Mark Boals is on vocals and there’s only one guitarist involved. The main author and composer of the material on “Shining Black” is the seasoned Olaf Thorsen, and three more Labyrinth members pitch in as well, so those vibes, listening to the substance of “Shining Black”, are no surprise at all.
There’s a lot of neoclassicism woven in. It’s something Italian musicians simply adore, and the nation of Giuseppe Verdi has always been broadly fond of it. The symphonic seasoning is there. The music is fleshed out with keyboards that, Hammond included, create a contrast to Thorsen’s metal phrasing. But it’s not all about “burning it up” and speed. The guys know how to conjure up, in a pleasingly gripping way, more softness and sophisticated poise too, as captured for example in the excellent The Day We Said Goodbye, where a conciliatory dialogue between piano and harmonized guitar pastels builds the backdrop to Boals’ deeply felt vocal performance. Ultra-musical catchiness runs through this album. Because of that, it veers compactly toward melodic rock elements, with a cunning implant of backing harmonies that keep Boals company in just the right doses of cleverly packaged arrangements. The production is nicely contrasted and sonically full, the building blocks in a well-balanced arrangement, with the guitar phrasing naturally taking the lead. The creators of the music here clearly channel inspiration from classic heavy rock acts like Rainbow and Deep Purple, though it surfaces “in the background”.
A record that doesn’t surprise and could, under the circumstances, have come out as the new Labyrinth album, yet on the other hand brings tons of joy to all fans of Mark Boals’ vocal feats, as well as lovers of symphonic elements in a melodic heavy metal stance, and it’ll satisfy everyone who can’t wait for a new Labyrinth album. It’s quite likely the project could grow into a new incarnation of Labyrinth. “Shining Black” certainly has all the right foundations.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. The House Of The Fallen Souls
2. The Boogeyman
3. My Life
4. A Sad Song
5. Shining Black
6. Just Another Day
7. Where Are Your Gods
8. The Carousel
9. The Day We Said Goodbye
10. We Fall
Lineup:
Mark Boals – vocals
Olaf Thorsen – guitar
Oleg Smirnoff – keyboards
Nik Mazzucconi – bass
Matt Peruzzi – drums
