Antonio Pantano - Arcandia

Antonio Pantano

Arcandia

by Dan Mailer at 06 October 2014, 7:14 PM

From the imagery and website of ANTONIO PANTANO I expected a sort of power metal album like something AVANTASIA might put out. I got something rather different with this album, "Arcandia".

Opening up with some atmospheric spoken word in the intro “March To The Frozen Plain” it seems promising enough, with some interesting sounds going on. The album however plods on between instrumental sections and spoken word, not really offering anything for fans of power metal vocals like myself. It feels like the songs are structured in a way that would benefit vocals, rather than composed solely for instruments so it is a little disappointing to be left with no vocals.

However there are some great, promising instrumental parts, such as in “Heroes Of The Mighty Castle” which provides a nice Celtic folk feel with some well played guitars and "Orania" which has a slight neo-classical edge to it. “On Top Of The World” is also worth a listen, with some nice guitar playing that leads this track to be a bit more exciting and dynamic.

The album ends on "Return To Summer Lands" which is a nice and epic enough sounding track.

The production is ok, it’s not perfect, with lots of midi synths that feel a little bit too digital in places, and not much in the way of power in the rhythm section really. It’s not bad but at the same time it could have done with a little more.

"Arcandia" is not a bad album by a long stretch. This is an artist with potential and musical talent certainly. But with the style he has made, it feels like it really needs a vocalist to really push it higher. However, musically this is good and should please fans of instrumental metal.