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Heraldy - Shadows of ancient Skies

HERALDRY
Shadows Of Ancient Skies
© 2003 Northwind Records  (NW-CD 010) 
progressive metal
studio album

A bit more than a year ago, I discovered some samples of this Italian band on the Internet and thought they were quite good, albeit that they sounded somewhat inexperienced. A full studio album is of course a more accurate way of judging a band, so I was happy to receive a copy of Heraldry’s debut album “Shadows Of Ancient Skies”.
Herladry were brought to life in April 1995 when the Machera brothers – Antonio on guitar and Fabrizio on drums – formed the band together with second guitarist Enzo Ferlazzo. They played Iron Maiden and Helloween covers at first, but after the completion of the line up with the addition of keyboard player Michele Garolla and a vocalist whom I don’t have any details of, they started writing their own songs. Until 1999, their song material could only be heard on stage. In the beginning of that year however, they got the chance to record their first demo tape called “The Fortune Teller”, a track that still can be found on their debut.
Heraldry were not really happy with the result and started searching for a new vocalist, as the voice was a large minus point at that time. The choice finally fell on Max Romano, with whom the band recorded two new songs: “Last Warrior’s Cry” and “Dream Fighter”, the ones that meant my introduction to the band. Positive feedback on these recordings followed soon and a deal with it. Unknown Italian label Videoradio gave Heraldry the chance to record their debut album in 2000. Praise of press and fans, a.o. on the international Vitaminic MP3 sites, came to the attention of Northwind Records, who picked up the band, re-printed their debut and re-released it with different artwork.
I must say I’m a bit disappointed after having heard the full album several times now. “Last Warrior’s Cry” and “Dream Fighter” are by far the best songs on the album, leaving a large gap with the rest of the songs quality wise. The production, done by the band themselves at Fuzz Studio in Roma, is not bad, but comes short in the mix, in which the vocals have the leading role. Speaking about the vocals, it seems that the never-ending search for a good singer is not over yet. Romano’s high-pitched voice suits the band’s music well, but it’s clearly not good enough to give an added value to the long and sometimes complex progressive music. Recent news confirms my feeling as the band have decided to stop the co-operation with Max Romano and added new vocalist Davis Mastrantonio to the line up.
Heraldry definitely have the talent to make an interesting light progressive/power metal album, but their debut has too much shortcomings. Let’s wait with judging them until the release of their next album and see what they can achieve with their new vocalist. 
      
 
Tracklist
1. Dream Fighter
2. Afterglow
3. Last Warrior’s Cry
4. Landscape
5. The Fortune Teller
6. Heraldry
7. Shadows Of Ancient Skies
8. Last Warrior’s Cry (edit version) 
 
Line-up
Antonio Machera (g)
Enzo Ferlazzo (g)
Max Romano (lv, bv, ag)
Michele Garolla (k)
Fabrizio Machera (d)