BASTIAN – Rock of Daedalus review

 BASTIAN – Rock of Daedalus

Underground Symphony

https://www.facebook.com/bastianband

Not so long ago I presented to you the debut album of BASTIAN who took their name from the guitarist and mastermind of the band Mr. Sebastiano Conti. In their debut album which had the title “Among My Giants”, BASTIAN were more of a studio project band with many participations on vocals and drums. If you check my review you will be really impressed by the artists that participate there. Now, on their sophomore release the band seems to have a more stable line-up and in my opinion a hard task. They have to compete with themselves and their very good debut album.

There might have been some line –up changes, but musically “Rock of Daedalus” continues from the point that the debut album left us. Once again the band delivers tunes that are dipped in the influences of the 70’s hard rock and 80’s melodic metal sound. It is obvious that Sebastiano’s guitar heroes are Ritchie Blackmore and Tony Iommi. These influences, though, don’t hold him back and force him just to pay tribute to them, instead they are his guiding light upon which he crafts compositions that carry his own personal touch.Their sophomore album is heavier than “Among My Giants” and yet has nice melodies and a skillful guitar playing that never shows off and always stays focused on the needs of the song. It is an album that not only has achieved the same level of quality with their previous release, but it also sounds even better. It is really hard to resist to songs that carry on in their own way the legacy of bands like RAINBOW and BLACK SABBATH (Tony Martin era). The songs vary from straight forward hard rock – heavy metal compositions to more lyrical epic ones. There is also a bluesy one under the title “Smokin’ Joe”. As I said above the skills of Sebastiano and of course the other musicians that participate here give to this album depth and variety and the more you listen to it the more you will enjoy.

Finally on the vocals once again is Michael Vescera who sings here all the songs and he really does a tremendous job. He manages to make the songs sound even more vivid and also gives a dramatic - theatrical touch to them.

Yep, this is an album that people who love guitar driven melodic metal should definitely check out…

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis