Metal Underground.com

Clairvoyants may just be the very first Italian band to release an album in 2012 absent of any flashy pomp and circumstance. Nope, you won’t find movie score magic here nor any super charged melodies that rocket to the moon with ear shattering vocalists. Clairvoyants drink from a more traditional conservative well somewhere on the outskirts of Como. Shedding from its original skin as an Iron Maiden cover band (hence the name) Clairvoyants has now released its sophomore effort of original material “The Shape of Things to Come.” The band certainly “flashed” the “blade” of potential with the 2009 debut release “Word to the Wise” and continues that trend with the new release.

There are many who may find the prolific pace of acts mixing traditional, power, and a splash of progressive to be old hat, but where the Clairvoyants win is in creating fetching numbers that tend to pop up in the mind like a Jehovah’s Witness at the doorbell. You certainly will not find anything ground breaking here, but what you will find is a solid release with good ole rock ‘n’ melodic metal served the traditional way. I trust that is exactly the way the band likes it. Songs like “No Need to Surrender,” “The Shape of Things to Come,” and “The Heaven and Back” all have memorable riffs and choruses influenced by the likes Deep Purple, early Queensryche, early Dokken, shades of early Van Halen and, of course, a heaping of Iron Maiden.

Make no question about it, the band is solidly euro-power based, but despite the run of the mill list of influences, Clairvoyants still presents interesting, well played and fantastically produced material. The twin guitar attack of Luca Princiotta (Doro/Ex-Sons of Seasons/Ex-Blaze) and Marco Demartini will not be trifled with. The solo work is epic and at times spellbinding (check out “Prometheus”). Vocalist Gabriele Bernasconi has a nice range and fits perfectly with the band’s overall style. Yet despite that power, this batch of songs oddly can all also serve quite well as radio hits, especially the power ballad “Sinner’s Tale.”

The stand out track for me is the eight minute progressive laced “Horizon Calling,” which I can only hope signifies the dawn of a new direction for the band for future releases. The song is the most complex on the album and exceeds the rest of the release in maturity and musicianship. All in all, Clairvoyants has scored a solid victory for traditional based melodic metal. Fans who like guitar driven metal with classic elements and catchy choruses will find this as a diamond in the rough.