Mistheria Dragon Fire
by Ron and Don Higgins
Staff Writer
When one thinks of musical virtuosos in the world of hard rock and heavy metal, you usually think of guitar players or maybe even a bass player or two. You rarely think in terms of a virtuoso keyboardist, but that’s exactly what we have here with Mistheria. He does a good job of mixing classical influences with heavy metal and it works well. Of course others have too, such as Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Rhapsody and even YouTube sensation Lim Jeong-hyun (aka funtwo). But usually it’s the guitarist who’s playing arpeggios in their soloing. Here we’re getting it from the piano and keyboard and Mistheria does a great job of incorporating his contributions with the rest of the band.
Mistheria (aka Giuseppe Iampieri) is an Italian keyboard session player who has appeared on albums with such heavyweights as Bruce Dickinson and Rob Rock, among others. His latest release Dragon Fire is an epic prog metal powerhouse. Much like his first solo album release in 2004, he has once again teamed up with a veritable Who’s Who of prog rock artists like John West (Artension/Royal Hunt), Rob Rock (Impellitteri), Mark Boals (Malmsteen/Ring Of Fire/Royal Hunt), Lance King (Balance Of Power), George Bellas (Ring Of Fire), Alberto Rigoni (Twinspirits) and John Macaluso (Ark, TNT, ex Malmsteen), to name a few.
If you’re a fan of progressive metal, you won’t be disappointed. This album contains fiery guitar solos, thundering double-bass percussion and screaming vocals. There’s a nice balance of extremely hard metal moments mixed in with mellow, classical piano segments, often times in the same song. One minute you’re banging your head to neo-classical guitar riffs reminiscent of Malmsteen or Impellitteri and the next minute you’re sitting in a symphony hall listening to one of the great masters work the ivories.
Kicking off the album is the title track “Dragon Fire”, which immediately sets the mood. A mini drum solo launches into heavy keyboards, rhythm guitars and then finally some incredible singing from John West. The song also features some impressive lead fret work and prepares the listener for what to expect from the rest of the album.
The second song “Lies & Deception” is one of the strongest tracks on the album, featuring the amazing vocals of Rob Rock. A futuristic keyboard intro leads into a more melodic tune, including intense guitar work and melodic background vocals.
The third track, “Killing The Pain” is another standout track along with tracks 4, 10 and 11 (“Two of Us”, “Chopin Fantasy” and “The Power of One”, respectively). It starts with a classical piano intro that leads into some blazing guitar leads followed by thundering drums with lots of double-bass. The highlight of this track is the catchy chorus, which you will be unwittingly humming to yourself days later.
At 8:01 minutes, “Two of Us” is probably the most progressive track, featuring the amazing vocals of Lance King. The song starts off with some piano and then gets pretty frantic with shredding guitar and pounding drums for the first minute. Then it becomes a slow to mid-tempo rocker with great vocals and piano in the background. It then speeds up with some good double-bass drumming and slows back down again. At around 4 ½ minutes we get some solo piano work from Mistheria. You can see his classical influences here, which is noticeable throughout the album. Finally, for the last two minutes the band joins back in and rocks out for the rest of the song.
“Chopin Fantasy” is a long instrumental showcasing excellent musicianship. It is one of three instrumentals on the album, along with “Metal Opera pt. 1: A.D. 1982”, which is a lead-in to “Metal Opera pt.2: Eye Of The Storm” (the single track featuring singer Mark Boals) and “Prelude 18 in F min.” which is a minute and a half piano instrumental leading into the longer “Chopin Fantasy”.
“The Power of One” is one of the best songs on the entire album. It is by far the most melodic. It starts off slow and then builds into strong prog elements in the middle before it reaches its crescendo and then wraps up in a beautiful melody.
In summary, this is a very strong, cohesive release, even though there are five different vocalists. Songs blend into each other so smoothly, at times you feel like you’re listening to a concept album. At one moment you’re rocking out to some serious thrash and then the next minute Mistheria is invoking classic Deep Purple sounds (check out “Fire & Flames”) and you’re sure you must be listening to Jon Lord. This fine piece of work finishes off with “A Beautiful Dream” which has haunting piano work and soft singing to wind down an extremely impressive prog rock release. There is so much variety here between melodic rockers, progressive elements, metal moments and beautiful, instrumentals that the album never gets boring or predictable.
Label: Lion Music
Website: http://www.mistheria.com/
Band:
Mistheria – Keyboards, Piano and Keytar.
John West – Vocals on 1, 3, 7, 11 & 12.
Rob Rock – Vocals on 2.
Mark Boals – Vocals on 6.
Lance King – Vocals on 4.
Titta Tani – Vocals on 1, 8 & 13.
George Bellas – Guitar on 2, 4, 6 & 10.
Neil Zaza – Guitar on 7.
Roger Staffelbach – Guitar on 3, 11 & 12.
Emir Hot – Guitar on 8.
Alberto Rigoni –Bass.
John Macaluso – Drums.
Track Listing:
01. Dragon Fire
02. Lies & Deception
03. Killing The Pain
04. Two Of Us
05. Metal Opera pt.1: A.D.1982
06. Metal Opera pt.2: Eye Of The Storm
07. Now It’s Never
08. Fire & Flames
09. Prelude 18 In F min
10. Chopin Fantasy
11. The Power Of One
12. The Beast
13. A Beautiful Dream
Hardrock Haven rating: 8.0/10