Artist: Tarchon Fist
Label: My Graveyard Production
Release: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Tarchon Fist are a freshly hatched Italian heavy metal band from Bologna. They’re textbook representatives of the Italian, modern-day take on heavy metal. If you’re looking for over-the-top pomp and melody technically fused with high-speed execution, you’ll find your paradise here. These guys drive that predictable brand of metal built on classically structured riffs, ruled by pure schoolbook melody logic. The whole thing smells strongly of power metal, since the band diligently works double bass drum pedal into their songs, and we get that sweet melodicity courtesy of the vocal lines, sung in a slightly raspy, mostly mid-to-high register that would fit nicely into some sleaze hard rock outfit too. On top of that there’s quick riff picking, one more ingredient that piles even more melody onto the album. Tracks like It’s My World, which by the way should have opened the album instead of Metal Detector (which shamelessly mimics Manowar’s muscle-flexing), as well as the later Bad Man Mania, Ancient Sign Of The Pirates and Eyes Of Wolf, prove that Tarchon Fist can be interesting.
It’s My World carries a touch of power melodics à la nineties Stratovarius in the pre-chorus, and the melodic backing vocal lines in the chorus wouldn’t embarrass some of today’s melodic hard rockers from northern Europe either. But Italians wouldn’t be Italians if they didn’t overdo things. Football Aces, for example, is something that can be 100% understood only by the Italian nation and nobody else. Here Tarchon Fist threw a bit of the pomp of their blood brothers Rhapsody Of Fire into the cauldron, some pseudo-machismo from Manowar, and melodies that try to channel Queen, since the whole thing sounds like an attempt at an anthem in the vein of We Are The Champions, one that could be used at Italian football league (Serie A) matches. That the guys also love listening to Def Leppard is confirmed by the gem No More Walls, which badly wrecks the mood and dynamics of the album. Moments like that metal-meets-Def Leppard combo or Football Aces take the seriousness out of the record, because they can’t hide the naivety that’s so often typical of Italian bands when they sit down to write metal. I could even rudely call it copying. This time, often a very poor kind. The closing Carved With Fire once again reminds you of the close family ties with Rhapsody Of Fire (the melodies in the chorus).
The guys managed to give the album a seriously bold production. It’s alive. The instruments are balanced, the vocals are front and center, the bass line is wound tight and melodic. There’s a tasteful contrast between them all.
Tarchon Fist are technically very polished musicians. Except for two gems, they wrote the rest of the material on the album themselves, and it successfully holds a common thread in its fluidity. So yes, it’s listenable. But it has plenty of holes in its expression. The first is facelessness: Tarchon Fist fail right from the start to establish an identity of their own. The slaloming between hard rock and heavy metal bugs me too, where the band just can’t pull off what, say, today’s new Scandinavian bands do, masterfully blurring the line between the two genres. A bit less overcomplicating and more elementary punch wouldn’t hurt the band in the future as they chase a higher level of riff impact and expressiveness. In other words, as little meandering and trying out of assorted musical bits as possible, mixing them together, and on the other hand they need to set a simple, clear goal and a development vision of what they actually want. Even the instrumental Doc Hammer says absolutely nothing. “Tarchon Fist” is a typical album that chronically lacks atmosphere and dynamics. Above all, you don’t feel the aggression, punch and arrogance that are a must in metal.
Tarchon Fist don’t hide their talents, but they’ll have to spit in their hands and get to work, and still learn a lot, especially how to rein in the emotional side that radiates childlike naivety, which is often the Achilles’ heel of Italian bands and drags their records into shallow fluff, something the band’s debut “Tarchon Fist” sadly didn’t manage to escape either.
Lineup
Luigi “Mr. J.J.” Sangermano aka “Sange” – vocals
Luciano “Lucio” Tattini – guitar
Lucio “Junior” Martelli aka “Doc Hammer” – guitar
Marco “Wallace” Pazzini aka “lo Spezz” – bass
Andrea “Animal” Barnabeo – drums
Production
Tarchon Fist
Tracklist
1. Metal Detector
2. It’s My World
3. Football Aces
4. Bad Man Mania
5. Ancient Sign Of The Pirates
6. Black Gold Fever
7. No More Walls
8. Blessing Rain
9. Eyes Of Wolf
10. Doc Hammer
11. Carved With Fire
12. Tarchonvolt (it’s my world)
Album length: 50.17
