For those who think that we're talking about something related to greek mythology, let's say few words about this italian band.
Labyrinth was initially started by an italian guitarist who nicknamed himself as Olaf Thorsen (I bet it was because italian names were not that popular then, or maybe because he received a message from God sternly asking the guys to change their names, but I guess the latter is less probable). Olaf Thorsen teamed up with Fabio Lione (yes, the actual Rhapsody singer) who also altered his real name to be known as Joe Terry. Labyrinth released a demo tape whose name doesn't come to my mind at the moment (sorry), and immediatly they signed a deal to release their first long play album: "No Limits" (1996). Thorsen liked to introduce certain techno elements he was influenced by, and the result was a pretty decent album with awesome songs like "Piece Of Time" or "Dreamland".
But it was with the master piece "Return To Heaven Denied" (1998) when this italian band jumped from the underground scene and were revealed as one of the most talented rising bands in Europe. Fabio Lione left the band before recording this album, and a guy nicknamed as Robert Tyrant (whose real name was Roberto Tiranti, quite similar) replaced Lione on the vocals. And this change was rightfully made, since Roberto had a nice and powerful voice worthy of an outranged singer. ¿The results? A killing album plenty of a heavy-technical sound, melody and a great production, a loooong european and japanese tour and lotsa money, I assume.
I had the chance to see them performing live, and I assure you that Tiranti is even more impressive when singing live, capable of keeping a high note for long time. Needless to say that to hear the last part of the song "Moonlight" with Tiranti screaming loudly was astonishing.
But, as usually, the fame caught the guys too quickly, and they had a high mark to overcome. Thorsen drowned himself into his side-project band with Fabio Lione (called Vision Divine), and the expected third album of Labyrinth delayed its release. Finally, and after false rumours of Tiranti's departure, "Sons Of Thunder" (2000) saw the light. The critics said it was a good album, but the customers' opinion differed substantially, and, as someone pointed out above, it is considered as a failure. I've listened to that album a couple of times so far.
The recent Labyrinth's history is short. The band didn't agree with Thorsen's preferences, so he decided to split up and let the rest of the band to choose their own horizons to explore. And that way, the band comes up with a new brand album with an undefined title, in my opinion a good album, but too straight and crude. But you know, the music is up to you all. Enjoy!!
Ingenius (Spending some time writting this review...)
