THE 7TH GUILD – “Triumviro”

You may have caught wind of a new band called THE 7th GUILD releasing new songs over the past months. With their debut officially released it is the perfect time to introduce them and discuss the qualities of their debut. The orchestrator of the band is SKELETOON vocalist Tomi Fooler, who enlisted Giacomo Voli (RHAPSODY OF FIRE) and Ivan Giannini (DERDIAN, till recently VISION DIVINE) in order to create a group comprised of three lead singers.  Supporting them on the instrumental part is Michael Ehré (GAMMA RAY) on drums, Francesco Ferraro (FREEDOM CALL) on bass, Simone Mularoni (DGM) on guitars, the orchestrations are courtesy of Daniele Mazza (ANCIENT BARDS) and Alessio Lucatti (VISION DIVINE) is the keyboardist. I believe the style of the band is more than clear based on the musicians contributing.

The whole concept sounds great on paper, but does reality go hand in hand with the theory? I say that “Triumviro” mostly introduces a project with enough potential rather allowing this potential to fully materialize in this first effort. Starting with the good parts, there is not room to question the vocal performances, all three members are doing an excellent job and on top of that their tones match in a great way. As the team comprises of three Italian singers it is only logical that there will be segments in their language also, wouldn’t it? I found those instances to be the most interesting parts of the whole record.  Be it on a fast song like ‘In Nomine Patris’ or more epic ones such as ‘Glorious’, it is always a good experience listening to metal songs in Italian. Then we have tracks with some good ideas like the lead guitar parts of ‘Metal charade’ to name one.

On the other hand I found myself more in search of the good and standout ideas rather than it being a constant. The flow of the album does not help the situation also. The first two tracks ‘Holy land’ and ‘7th guild’ are your typical power metal tunes, then the pace improves from ‘Glorious’ to ‘Guardians of eternity’ until we go to the end where ‘Metal charade’ does fall short, guitar parts that I mentioned above aside. For the epilogue that is SHAMAN’s cover for ‘Fairytale’, the singers did a great job considering Mattos had a unique voice, though I would like a stronger and original closure for “Triumviro”, one that would lower the curtain leaving a strong impression accompanied by an eagerness to come back. The strong middle part that represents the good side of the album does not house a powerhouse hit either, though I may regret not calling ‘Glorious’ as such at some point because it is, well,… glorious! I had fun while listening to them but after some re-listens I do not have a strong urge to return.

All in all I wanted to proceed with this review not to say that I do not find it amazing, but to point out its strengths because I see the potential. It is a debut after all. To summarize, the debut of THE 7TH GUILD has some nice songs in the middle of the tracklist, but overall it lacks the kick that will make itself standout and create a lasting impression to me. Going forward I would totally enjoy a sequel that is fully sung in Italian, because I enjoyed the entirety of those cases. For that reason I would suggest a listen so that you can discover those moments yourself, but overall I say that you should go in with tempered expectations.

60/100

Pavlos Pavlakis

100: Godsent

90s: Excellent

80s: Very good

70s: Good

60s: Enjoyable

50s: Uninspired

40s: Bad

0s -30s: Unlistenable