Degrees of Truth – Time Travel Artifact

 With “Time Travel Artifact” the band has created an album that doesn’t exactly follow the tradition of symphonic metal, but doesn’t stray away too much either, as you will be charmed by both Claudia Pezzotta’s beautiful vocals and by the neat backing arrangements, while the guitars and drums give a nice, albeit pretty light, metal balance to the music. In other words, it may be seen as just a rehash of some of the genre’s tropes, in the vein of Visions of Atlantis, which is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but it also offers variety and freshness. As such songs like opener “Ark”, “The Void Within” or the ballad “Love me, protect me” are quite pleasant to listen to, they don’t really offer anything new. “The Remedy” is a nice duet with some synth work that spices things up a bit.

 Now, with the whole “Dream” sequence, which makes for a lengthy part of this record, things take a turn for the better. I enjoy the light oriental melodies, the amazing guitar solo and overall atmospheric feel in “Dream I – Compàs” as well as the uplifting melodies and breezy arrangements of “Dream II – Long Way, Silk Way” but what really hits home for me is “Dream III – Lìthos”, especially the piano parts and the intense build-up of the music, which highlights their progressive side. It’s such a beautiful piece of music and I just love how it ebbs and flows between mellow moments and heavier passages. The dramatic “Dream IV – the post-war solace” starts off on melodic vocals but soon unfolds into something much darker and twisted, as parts of it remind me of Metallica’s “One”, but more in terms of general ambiance and gloominess (especially considering the spoken passages), than anything else. Another highlight of the album is “Proximate”, which has some nice operatic chants on a background of nifty guitars, pounding drums and some synth work, which make for an interesting listening. Closing track “Time travel artifact” is another intense and rather dark number, which again twists and turns and offers powerful riffs, pounding drums and quite possibly the best vocal performance of the album.