VELVET THUNDER

Wonders is a new progressive metal band that was put together in 2020 by Giorgio Lunesu (drums) and his brother Pietro Paolo (guitar) from the Italian progressive metal band Even Flow along with the producer and keyboard player Bob Katsionis who was previously with Firewind. They started a search for like minded musicians to join the team and brought in the vocalist Marco Pastorino and bassist Luca Negro both from the heavy metal band Temperance.

The Fragment Of Wonders is the debut album and is a very good melodic metal album and is perhaps more Scandinavian metal that Italian metal in terms of structure, development and sound which is big in vocal harmonies, high on melody and with plenty of hooks to keep you entertained. The vocals are excellent being clear, clean and crisp with all of the required power needed and Pietro Lunesu lays down some crushing riffs and stunning solos and, hardly surprisingly, the keyboards are very much to the front of the mix with Katsionis showing just what a talented and highly regarded musician he is. The songs are well written and all are upbeat anthemic rockers with just the odd power ballad that sweeps you along and all are guaranteed to get those fists in the air when the band gets round to taking the material on the road. There are elements of Firewind as well as Even Flow and maybe just a touch of Stratovarius and Evergrey too which makes for a perfectly delivered melodic metal with just a hint of the progressive thrown in for good measure.

The Fragment Of Wonders is an excellent debut and is immediately hitting although the more plays you give it allows the textures in the album to be fully revealed so it is one of those slow burning albums that gets better with each play and is highly recommended.