Ah...where do I start? These are my "boys" as I have said before. My personal guilty pleasure and favorite out of the whole metal world, this is the band I rest my hopes on and play their music when Im down. Surprising how much I care for this band as not only musicians, but as people as well. I got to meet this group last september at a metal festival and it was just the best experience I ever had in my life. Ill never forget that moment for as long as I live. Needless to say, I got a lot of free things from them. Noo..not becuase I was cute (although I cant say Im not), but more of a fact that they were grateful for my help that I gave them 8 months before hand for their album.
First off, this group is from Italy. Alessandria, Italy to be exact. Thats in the northern west part of Italy, and according to my Italian instructor, its a small, but nice town. Their influences are very much from the hard rock era of the 80s, mixed with power metal, they come off almost a bit poppy at times. They personally arent the most popular band in the underground metal world, but they do have a unique spark that I personally enjoy. Their music appeals to me because, its everything I always wanted in a band. The way they play, the way it sounds, their themes, the people. Its always what I imagined my perfect band would be.
And a small tid bit for those of you who are curious about their name. Their name was created by a friend of theirs, but has a bigger meaning than just putting two cool words together. The "sphere" or "secret sphere" to be exact is more like your inner self. It is everything from your imagination, your strength, courage, and personal or "secret" part of you. It is your soul and who you are. The name has many different meanings, but generally it means what I just said. That is what Secret Sphere stands for, being yourself, unique and being passionate about what you love.
I first discovered them on "Italian Metal Kingdom." A very small and interesting site...that gives you the feeling of an old dusty archive of metal waiting to be discovered and glorified. Among the bands I rummaged threw was Secret Sphere. I thought..."Oh hey..thats a cool name..lets check these guys out." And when I went to their website, I was just shocked on what kind of music they played. They really impressed me; they were so catchy and easy to listen to that I went to buy their second album "A Time Never Come" immediatly.
For those of you who are curious...Italian Metal Kingdom doesnt exist anymore sadly enough. For some reason it was taken down..even though I was very attached to that website. Like I said before..it was like an old dusty archive that some one would accidently find every now and then.
It is hard for me to describe who they sound like because, I have yet to find a band that sounds even remotely close to their style. I would probably say they sound a little bit like Guns N Roses, Labyrinth, Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, maybe some other things.
------------------------------------------
Biography:
Here is their Biography: (I pretty much ripped it from the site since they say it better than I do in reality. Besides I dont think you want this review to be any longer than it should.)
------------------------------------------
Band Members:
Roberto Messina - Vocals
You know that guy I have on my posts that you keep seeing? Ya that is Roberto Messina. He is one of my favorite metal singers in the metal world. He sings on a more lower register than most metal singers, but he has a very rich and powerful voice. I think he is an amazing singer and will only get better with time. He also has a very warm and silly personality when you meet him, he's easily the most approachable member and also the most talkative. Always smiling.
Aldo Lonobile - Lead Guitars
Aldo is the leader and the brains of Secret Sphere. He is also probably one of the shortest members, but size doesnt matter becuase, this man plays like he is ten feet tall. Aldo's style is more inbetween hard rock and power metal and thrives the best in classical guitaring and hammer ons (is that spelled correctly?). He is also quite humble and very easy to talk with.
Paco Gianotti - Rythem Guitars
Paco plays rythem guitars and pretty much creates the power behind the lead guitarist. He rocks hard on stage and has a very funny and quirky personality. He does bring life into this band of musicians at times with a joke even in the worst situations and is very easy to get along with. Dont ask me why his name sounds Mexican..I really honestly don't know.
Andrea Buratto - Bass Guitar
Andrea, the pretty boy, blondy of the group and by far the most hard rocking bass player on stage. He is usually the most enjoyable to watch on stage besides the singer and his bassing is great. He provides a lot of good rythem and strength to the guitars.
Antonio Agate - Keyboards
Antonio is one of the bands strengths. Since Secret Sphere is heavily keyboard driven, Antonio provides a good amount of the beautiful melodies and keyboard atmospheres for their songs. I admire him so much and really love his style. Very rich and flavorful. He is very kind and humble as well and sometimes bashful towards compliments. ;D
Luca Cartasegna - Drums
The hard rocking beast behind the drums. Luca is amazing when he plays becuase, well...he doesnt play typical power metal drums. He is also one of the strengths of Secret Sphere with his unique drumming abilities. Luca is a fun guy to talk to, unfortunately Luca has left the band after the third album and he will be replaced by a different drummer. :'( Luca...I will miss thee....considerably!
------------------------------------------
Albums:
So far Secret Sphere has put out three different albums and one demo. Which I have a song from the demo...if you want it, come and IM me..I really dont like pirating this song around for some reason:
Mistress of the Shadowlight
Dawn Of Time
Age Of Wizard
Recall Of The Valkyrie
On The Wings Of Sun
Twilight Of Fairy Tale
White Lion
Labyrinth Of Glass
Seren
Secret Sphere
Mistress of the Shadowlight is very power metal if you want to know. It basically has some lighter and more generally happier fantasy themes. It starts off with the ever peaceful and adventurous instrumental "Dawn of Time" goes through some speed and melodic power metal songs, hits a soft love ballad with "Twilight of Fairy Tale," goes into the powerful "White Lion" and after a few songs later, reaches the ultimate finale "Secret Sphere," which I feel is the killer song on the album. The song "Secret Sphere" is ten minutes of pure metal! AWESOME! Most of these songs are generally 5 minutes or more, which is very typical for a metal song.
A Time Never Come
Gate Of Wisdom
Legend
Under The Flag Of Mary Read
The Brave
Emotions
Oblivion
Lady Of Silence
The Mystery Of Love
Paganini's Nightmare (theme from Caprice #5)
Hamelin
Ascension
Dr. Faustus
A Time Never Come is kind of a concept album...kind of not. I personally always thought of it as a theme album, but people like to call it a concept. (I personally dont think most people know what they are talking about any way.) A Time Never Come features many different fantasy stories all in one album. From William Wallace, to the Pied Piper, to a female pirate, and Dr. Faustus. The whole album stars a young girl named "Aurienne" that escapes into these fantasies and stories and is narrated by an entity called "The Sphere."
This is a more darker themed fantasy album that starts off with the words of "Gmork," the black wolf from the Never Ending Story, then moves quickly into the beautiful starting piano lines of legends followed by some hard rocken guitars. Then it shifts into the very exciting "Under the Flag of Mary Read," and moving into the epic song, "The Brave" only to slowly settle into the jazzy like instrumental "Emotions."
Then follows two more powerful songs and then into another love song, "The Mystery of Love" (which is my least favorite off of this album), then it goes into another instrumental with some deep slow voices and connects to the fast paced and exciting song "Hamelin" (One of my personal favorites), then it draws into conclusion with another instrumental and last..."Dr. Faustus." Another ten minute finale from Secret Sphere. Wow what a ride...this album is purely classic for Secret Sphere.
Scent of Human Desire
Rain
Still here
1000 eyes' show
More than simple emotions
Surrounding
Desire
Virgin Street 69
Runaway train
Scent of a woman
Life 1 (Walking through the dawn)
Life 2 (Daylight)
Scent of Human Desire is the third installment of their list of albums to come. This album had a lot of spite and controversy against it in the metal world becuase of its "themes." Which I couldnt understand why..they made it clear from the beginning that it was going to be more like a hardrock influenced album compare to the more power metalish style they ran through before. People also have said that it doesnt seem like Secret Sphere is sticking to one style on this album and its confusing. Odd....actually this is probably the worst album as far as singing. But the music is a lot more experimental, which is something I always liked. The theme of this album is love, everything from happiness to betrayal, to well....a little fun song called "Virgin Street 69." Their bonus track on this album is silly as hell....being Manowar...its got to be cheesy. But they managed to pull off an even better version of Manowar's "Kings of Metal." LOL. But hey....I find myself sometimes getting into that silly song from time to time. ;)
This album starts off strong with my all time favorite song "Rain," a powerful and very cool song to start off with. It runs through the fast paced and hard styled "Still Here," then into the song "1000 Eyes Show," a song about some guy saving a stripper..maybe a prostitute..from the life she is forced to live. Then it goes into the sweet and most popular song off the album, "More than Simple Emotions," jumps into a Kornish beginning with "Surrounding," than to a Queensryche sounding song called "Desire," into the so called "party song" (which I like to call the whore house song) Virgin Street 69. This song is the most amusing song in the album.
Then it bounces into "Runaway Train" the second most popular song off of the album, and into the slow, sensual and very cool "Scent of a Woman." Then out into the bright and happy "Life Part 1" and into the finale and coooolest song of all "Life Part 2," with some funk style keyboarding towards the end of the song. Then you MUST listen for the ghost track that is at the end of Life Part 2...it takes a while to get to it...but it is SOOO funny. Stupid funny that is. You can't help but to laugh at it!
------------------------------------------
Downloads:
Im giving you three FULL versions of these songs to download...this is only for publicity purposes. So please do not pirate these around to ten of your favorite friends. If you like this band....I encourage you to buy their albums. They need the money..No..Im serious..they really do. Underground bands need all the money they can get and pirating only hurts them. If you dont like their music, erase the mp3. That is the right thing to do. Im giving you one from each album:
1. Mistress of the Shadow Light - Song: --- Age of Wizard
2. A Time Never Come - Song: --- Hamelin
3. Scent of Human Desire - Song: --- Rain
------------------------------------------
And last but not least, their website! Enjoy!