VELVET THUNDER

Lay Of The Autumn are a new band put together by keyboardist Davide Scuteri (Ravenword, Choirs Of Veritas). Scuteri has pulled in fellow-Italians and fellow-members of Ravenword to flesh out the band, plus Ukranian singer Iryna Boyarkina (ELIA, Mysterya). The name of the band comes from the song of the same name by Insomnium from 2009’s  Across The Dark, but if Insomnium were an inspiration for the group’s name, the same can’t be said for the group’s music which Scuteri himself confirms is influenced by Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius and Nightwish. The first two are easy to discern, in as much of this album is categorisable as fast-paced power metal, but from Nightwish there’s a strong symphonic impulse and a tendency towards an epic sound. Add to the influence of those three Finnish bands, a healthy dose of Italian melody, and the outcome is one of the more interesting new metal bands to emerge this year. 

A short keyboard instrumental piece, When It Rains, acts as an introduction to the album and to the first proper song, Flowing Tears, with which it is musically linked. Flowing Tears begins in an introspective mood before accelerating into a typical power metal groove albeit not a hard-edged one thanks to Scuteri’s synths being more prominent than Davide Lovecchio’s guitar (as is the case in much of the album). Flowing Tears progresses a little predictably but then Scuteri treats us to a solo which sounds remarkably like Rick Wakeman, thus giving a bit of a prog feel to proceedings.

At least half of the tracks are in the same lush power metal vein as Flowing Tears. Of these, Lost in Your Eyes with its synth-driven riff and strong melody is perhaps the best. Personally, I enjoy this sort of hectically paced music in a concise format, but here it is often stretched out to six minutes, and to these ears some of these tracks might have been more enjoyable as tighter three- or four-minute numbers.  

Those that lean towards a more straight forward symphonic metal sound are strong tracks.  Thrown Away has a strong chorus, reminiscent of Nightwish, and unusually some growling vocals interspersed with another Wakeman-like keyboard phrase (an unusual combination for sure!). The excellent title track is strongly guitar-driven and provides some contrast to the lush keyboard sound elsewhere.  

Boyarkina’s vocals might not appeal to everyone. In the low registers she sounds warm and appealing, and while she does have enough vocal power to carry the power metal sections, to these ears she doesn’t have a compelling tone when stretching herself in this way. With the right song though, she’s outstanding. Take what for me is the highlight of the album, All This Time, Always (a quote from a film that Harry Potter fans might recognise). Here, the band slows the pace down and it appears initially as if it’s going to be a West End style ballad, but it builds powerfully with layers of synths and guitars to a lush soaring chorus, and then it just seems to continue layering on more instruments with a more forceful vocal delivery like one of Meatloaf’s emotional overdoses. It’s quite brilliant! A second slower track, Love You To Death, is also a fine piece, again with hints of the stage, although musically less bombastic than All This Time, Always, and with Boyarkina’s vocals more restrained too.

There is one track that was recorded prior to Boyarkina joining Lay Of The Autumn, and not surprisingly it was an instrumental. It’s called Si Sta Come D’Autunno Sugli Alberi Le Foglie. Those eight words form a well-known poem – to Italians, at least – called Soldati written by Giuseppe Ungaretti towards the end of the First World War. In those words, Ungaretti alludes to the (dying) soldiers being like the leaves falling off autumn trees. You might expect that to be the cue for some soulful music full of pathos, but after a quick burst of machine guns and screams, Scuteri launches into another of his Wakeman-inspired keyboard solos. Lovecchio gets a look in at the half-way mark and then the two of them appear to dual in some sort of contest to see who can play the fastest (watch the breathtaking display below, it’s very impressive!).

Lay Of The Autumn is a welcome addition to Italy’s already strong presence in the power metal field. Of Love And Sorrow is one of the strongest metal debut albums that I’ve heard this year and it will appeal to power and symphonic metal fans alike.