Arachnes – A New Day (Reissue)

Arachnes

A New Day (Reissue)

by Neil Cook at 23 May 2021, 7:53 PM

ARACHNES are from Milan, Italy, which seems to be a hot bed of Rock and Metal in Italy. Formed by the brothers Caruso back in 1995 and are still going strong, OK as most bands there have been a few changes of members along the way, but doesn’t matter.  “A New Day” was their 7^th album, originally released in 2011 digitally, here we are reviewing the physical release on the Music For The Masses label. The band are described as Prog Power Metallers, which is appropriate a label to hang on them, even though their sound pulls from far and wide, with elements of Classic Rock, Pomp, even 80s Hair Metal with the ballad “My Face Is Hard” and Classical composers, the orchestral composition of “Parallel Words” illustrates this.

So, it is fair to say from the intro “Psychedelic Trip” (In my opinion a mis-named track, more electronic than trippy in its nature), which introduces a musical refrain that can be heard throughout the album, to “First Of All”, which is confusingly the last track of all, there is a LOT going on here.  Primarily amongst this wall of sound and ideas is the guitar virtuosity of brother Frank, who sites Richie Blackmore as a big influence, and Yngwie Malmsteen, both of whom used elements of Classical music in their compositions and would rather play 1000 notes instead of 1.  The cover of DEEP PURPLE’s “Fireball” attests to this.  A decent cover, but made even more overblown than the original in all but vocals, not the albums strongest track, but illustrates their more is more approach.

For me the best songs are where they pare it back and just rock out, like “Magic World” for example is more Power than Prog, almost has a HELLOWEEN feel to it. “Running In An Old Town” another rocker, yes has more elements of Proggier side, more keys, and intricate rhythms, but is a balanced in its elements, with some excellent drumming and dirty riffs, “Rage” era QUEENSRYCHE springs to mind.

There isn’t anything truly bad on the album.  It tries a bit too hard to cram in every idea in places, “I Know The Darkness” for example shoots in every direction in 5 minutes, and with a bit of restraint this could have been a very cool song.

In conclusion, I didn’t dislike this album, but for my tastes and ears there was too much going on at once.  Great musicians absolutely, and with the exception of the aforementioned “Fireball”, Enzo’s vocals were on point, but he was on a hiding to nothing with that one as only Mr Gillan could do that song justice. Personally with so much going on I would lose interest and the album would be unlikely to get repeated listening, sorry.

Songwriting: 7
Musicianship: 8
Memorability: 6
Production: 7