The 7th Guild. A brand-new massive Italian collective of eight professional adepts of the art of Power Metal. Well, the project in itself is not that brand new, apparently. Tomi Fooler (SkeleToon) started the action back in 2021. But it is only this February 2025 that the first full-length album Triumviro will see the light of day. In other words, this burgeoning gang of band members stayed undercover for a while, methinks. So much so that even the mighty Metal Archives don’t sport an entry for the band yet at the time of writing this review. And that means something.
The band copied the good ol’ formula of a Temperance-esque trifecta of singers. A typical Italian Power Metal setting of sorts. And apart from Fooler, Giacomo Voli of Rhapsody of Fire and Ivan Giannini of Derdian joined the fray for some groovy group chanting. And that indeed might garner them some brownie points. But only if the august clutch of Vocalists-In-Charge manages to whip this gaggle of miscellaneous tracks into a coherent amalgamation. Yet, here I can’t shake the feeling that the coordination didn’t work to the fine point of performance other PM outfits managed to reach in the past.
Triumviro indeed sports a very traditional brand of Italian Power Metal. Reckless speeding at some 250 mph, high-pitched loud vocals, and a drum pattern to wear the stick wielder out before he even thinks of retiring. On top of that, the guitarists knock themselves out with the typical riff-fest garnished with a soaring solo here and there. Yet, the axemen always find themselves oddly back in the mix. To the point of being overtaken by the drums of all things. To complete the PM offering, The 7th Guild threw in a ballad here and there for good measure, as astute adepts of the Metal o’ the Light must (Time, for instance). This whole densely written construct sits atop an effusively burnished production full of flamboyant and intensely bombastic soundscapes. A production that won’t allow one well-coiffed hair-lock to move out of place.
Same as other bands have done before them, Triumviro often blatantly hunts in territories other outfits already occupied. Rookie bands sometimes collect the best cuts other bands already published to curry favor with their still-growing fanbase. And this is always never a really good idea. Case in point, Fellowship came to mind with a vengeance once Holy Land roars off into the lustrous yonder. The band kinda redeems itself by hitting the speed pedal somewhat fierce and thus avoids the sugar trap the latter folks so blatantly fell into last time around. Glorious, in contrast, could have easily emerged from one of Arrayan Path‘s many concoctions. Yet another ballad-esque mid-tempo track soaring in on a mix of English and Italian.
And that leads us to another issue. Once The 7th Guild finished reinventing Power Metal’s great concoction in bold strokes, their own creations bubbled to the forefront. And those often manifested themselves in Italian (La Promessa Crimisi, for example) with way weaker songsmithing. Don’t get me wrong, the RMR crew loves themselves sturdy metal cuts entirely in Italian. Those often sport a rough-hewn atmosphere full of hidden menace, imbibed with age-old wisdom percolating up to us from an ancient culture. Yet, to inject a two-language setting into a cheese-laden production such as Triumviro just increased the cringe factor and exuded uneasy vibes of Eros Ramazotti on the good ol’ Sunset Strip.
But let’s take stock, shall we? When I first saw the lineup, I expected great things. Triumviro delivers technically astute Power Metal with anything the PM fan craves for a good night out. And while pretty much all tracks are chiseled out to a fine point, the RMR crew missed that extra push. No decisive action kicking this slab of gleaming metal up a few notches to shine supremely above the mean crowd.
Instead, The 7th Guild opted to create more of the same. This may please some parts of the fan crowd but it will hardly lift the wares on offer above the fold. Or to put it more brutally, looking underneath the polished veneer, stale songwriting and execution will – finally – generate equally stale content. And that doesn’t give the amassed talent on this collective the credit it truly deserves.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Scarlet Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 21 February 2025