Airborn - "Lizards Secrets: Part One - Land of the Living" (Fighter Records, 2018)

Band: Airborn
Title: Lizard Secrets: Part One - Land of the Living
Genre: Power Metal
Time: 50 min
Year: 15th May 2018
Rating: 93/100












A power metal album on these pages? FUCK YEAAAH! This is undoubtedly the first power metal album ever reviewed on Timpani allo Spiedo, and for excellent reasons, as you'll see very soon. The first reason is surely the fact that Airborn are a veteran quartet coming from Turin, one of the most beautiful cities of my country. Another reason is that their 5th album "Lizard Secrets: Part One - Land of the Living", first of an albums' trilogy, was released under the auspices of Fighter Records, the heavy metal sub-label of the Dave Rotten's Xtreem Music, so we are talking about quality stuff. But the most important reason is about the music of Airborn!


In fact, Airborn has written a monumental 13-track album in which there is a really dynamic power metal rooted in the old-school and impregnated with genuine doses of heavy metal, speed metal and neoclassical influences. This means that this opus is a perfect synthesis between refined melodies, epic atmospheres, intensity, speed aggression and great songwriting abilities that allowed to the band to create spectacular climaxes for the tracks. The final result of all this is an excellent album where the variety reigns supreme and the wrong steps don't exist, and this is incredible for an album with so many songs and with a lenght of 50 minutes like this one!

Some examples about what I said? I'll take the 5 favorite tracks of mine so to help me for this task: "Lizard Secret" with its epic and medievalish melodies; the following "We Realize", tinged with some dark and futuristic moments and where there is a great performance on the keyboards by the singer/guitarist Alessio Perardi; the speed metal undomable attack "Meaning of Life", full of memorable line vocals and with a notable basswork; the anthemic "Metal Haters", characterized by rockish tunes from time to time as well gang choruses; and the gran finale "My Country is the World", 7 minutes of epicness brilliantly reinforced by a really atmospheric keyboards sequence at the end of the song.

Another mentionable number is "Cosmic Rebels", a re-recorded version of an old Airborn's song, that ends effectively the album, even though I think it's a little bit useless for the purpose of the album. And there is to mention also "Wolf Child", surely the most violent episode in the list due to a prohibitive pace and to some thrash metal influences...even though I think it's not always effective.

All this is completed by many brilliant guitar solos, a clean but sharp production that reminds me a bit of the '80s (like in the reverber on the vocals), a very good singer that has a melodic voice and a lot of creativity regarding the line vocals, and by the participation of many International guests (see below). So, this album is really perfect for everyone wants a strong power metal album. Sure, it doesn't reinvent the wheel but, said frankly, I don't give a colossal fukken fuck about originality because Airborn plays fast and in an old-school way in the tradition of bands like Running Wild, Iron Savior and Gamma Ray!

P.S.: The band has working to plan its 2019 tour. I hope that they will come also in Rome, soon or later!

P.S. 2: Strange news, Airborn have recently unleashed the teaser trailer of their first arcade space battleships videogame called "Airborn: Cosmic Rebels" destined for Windows PC! And it will be also free to play!

Tracklist:

1 - Immortal Underdogs (intro)
2 - Who We Are
3 - Lizard Secret
4 - We Realize
5 - Brace for Impact
6 - Wolf Child
7 - Here Comes the Claw
8 - Land of the Living
9 - Meaning of Life
10 - Metal Haters
11 - Defenders of Planet Earth
12 - My Country Is the World
13 - Cosmic Rebels (bonus track)

Line-up:

Alessio Perardi - vocals/guitars/keyboards
Roberto Capucchio - guitars
Domenico Buratti - bass
Roberto Gaia - drums

Guests:

Claudio Ravinale (Disarmonia Mundi) - additional vocals (track 7)
Marius Danielsen (Legend of Valley Doom, Darkest Sins) - additional vocals (track 8)
Alexis Woodbury (Instanzia) - additional vocals (track 9)
Jan Bertram (Paragon) - lead guitars (track 11)

HomePage: http://www.airbornband.com/
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/Airbornband
Fighter Music: http://www.fighter-records.com/