Hailing from Italy, home of over-the-top "Hollywood Metal" as championed by Rhapsody Of Fire, Lunocode make their debut playing progressive tinged power metal. Rather than embellish upon their music with the symphonic tendencies that run rampant through the scene of late, Lunocode instead deftly blends strong song writing with a subdued sense of epic that should bring a smile to those listeners that have grown weary of the more recent fluff filled power metal output (and I know "fluff filled power metal" is redundant, but you have to admit it has reached new levels recently).

"Last Day Of The Earth" is an EP, not an actual full length album, so there are only five songs and one meaningless intro on display. "Flow, My Tears" is undoubtedly the strongest of the five, featuring good riff progression and a steady flow that never strays into uninteresting. Vocalist Cecilia Menghi is a pleasure to listen to, and despite a few moments of sounding strained to hit higher notes she provides a warm quality that gives the music a soul. "Universal Plan" follows with a slight drop in overall quality, but still retains the listeners interest with decent song writing and a killer chorus.

Unfortunately the remaining three songs do not maintain the momentum. "Heart Of The World" has some good moments, but overall suffers from too many ideas that don't gel together. "Silent Thoughts" is a ballad, and a good one, but is way too long. There are about four minutes that could be shaved off this tune to make it more accessible and much stronger as a whole. A metal audience can handle good ballads, but only in measured doses so constraint is neccesary. Finally "Invisible Tears" is a nice acoustic piece with Cecilia's best performance, but in context to the album it suffers from following the previous nine minute ballad. At this point the listener is either asleep or doing something else.

So what is the verdict? "Last Day Of The Earth" does its job, and leaves me eagerly anticipating Lunocode's first true album. There is a world of possibility for this young band, and they are a breath of fresh air for the stagnant power metal scene, but I encourage them to sharpen their song writing to a finer edge, so that the excess of the latter tracks gives way to the finer points of the former.
Metal Reviews

Sometimes writers like me just have an oversight. For example, last month I did a bit of a feature on female-fronted, symphonic type bands. However, for whatever silly reason, I forgot to include Lunocode! I have no idea why I missed it but I want to discuss their debut, full-length album "Celestial Harmonies". The album came out on the Italian Spider Rock label, in early 2012 as a follow up to their excellent debut EP, "Last Day Of The Earth".

The quintet themselves are Italian and have issued this very entertaining, very promising debut. Things start with a powerful note with the short and sweet song, "Sin Cara". It's the shortest on the album, with some amazing soloing. There is some great acoustic/electric interplay and even a hint of flute here and there on the next cut, "Heart Of The World", a very engaging ballad highlighting the soft, sweet side of the voice of Daphne Romano.

The band fall into the progressive vein, more than symphonic, which is maybe why I didn't include them last month. The band name, according to the website is roughly adapted from a Russian term, Lunokhod, meaning "moonwalker" which ties in nicely with the bands lyrical themes of exploring the universe. The band use lots of effects, keyboards and some spoken-word parts to fill out the songs.

Undoubtedly the center-piece of the five song, hour long album is the epic suite "The Origin Of Matter And Mind" which clocks in at 30 minutes. The song is broken into parts I've always felt it takes skill to write a really long song and keep the listeners interest and the band manage to do just that. The lyrics are very original. Lunocode take the story of Albert (one of the first monkeys to be sent into space back in 1949) and expand the story into what Albert sees, hears, feels and where he went in his mind during that journey into space.

"Celestial Harmonies" is a very accomplished piece of work. Although the album is on the lighter side of prog-Metal, it is never dull or uninspired. At the same time the album never gets too self-indulgent with endless musical exercises. The band in an odd way reminding me of Rush, the talent is obvious, playing when they have to but not always. "Celestial Harmonies" is fine debut from a very promising act.

Metal Rules