Sea of Tranquillity
4,5/5
Isn't it just a great feeling when you hear an album that hooks you straightaway? That's what transpired for myself once the songs on this shit hot new metal release Madness Of War from the Italian band Overmaster were unleashed. Overmaster was started by vocalist "Gus" Gustavo Adrian Gabarro in 2006, who was previously with Italian power metal band White Skull, and united with his talented band mates they have constructed a mighty selection of metallic music.
Madness Of War's concept "is to illustrate the horrors of war and its different faces through the centuries, from the Ancient Greece era ("Marble King", "Spartan Warriors", "Battle Prayer" and Efialths") to the modern Malvinas/Falklands war (" Nameless Hero") and the young suicide children in Middle East ("Children of the sand")". And with such a topic as to be expected the lyrics are quite confronting "Battleships from the sea open fire, Burning flesh, tremble the earth, Landscape soldiers waiting for cold sure death, Dying bodies creep in bloody sand".
Overmaster's catchy music blends harder power metal and thrash making this debut a real treat for metal fans. Orchestral music can be heard on "Walking Back To Hell" joined by the sounds of battles being fought throughout the ages, Overmaster introduce their metal with a bang as the guitars of "Marble King" shred away, this is a great prompt opener, as the band are sure to get heads banging with the heavy "Spartan Warriors" and the pounding sounds of "Overlord" which has a very inviting guitar solo. Overmaster then show their diversity with a catchy metal rocker called "Revolution World", and some inspiration can be heard at the start of the very ballsy "Jungle Of Madness" from the Helloween song "Halloween". The slower "Children Of The Sand" really impresses as does "Prophet Of War" which has multiple speed changes, the guitar on this track is a standout.
Overmaster's Madness Of War is an enjoyable first effort and a very recommended one.
Passzio.hu
7,5/10
Furcsa üzletpolitikát követ az olasz Cruz Del Sur... Egyrészről olyan zseniális csapatok akadnak náluk, mint az epikus doom mester While Heaven Wept, másrészről olyan gyenge és klisés tucatmunkával előálló bandák is, mint pl. az Ignitor. Nem igazán tudom fejben összerakni a dolgot, bár nem is sok közöm van hozzá. Az viszont kétségtelen, hogy a kiadó palettáján kiemelt szerepet játszanak a tradicionális metal hagyományait ápoló zenekarok. Ezek egyike a négy éves múltra visszatekintő olasz kvintett, amelyet a White Skull-ban is megfordult Gus Gabarrò hívott életre.
A Sabaton növekvő népszerűsége után csak idő kérdése volt, hogy mikor jelennek meg hasonló koncepcióval bíró bandák, ezek egyike a szóban forgó társulat, akik egyetlen demó után kaptak lehetőséget a bizonyításra. Kőkemény metal Metal Church, Annihilator és Helloween hatásoktól sem mentesen, háborús tematikájú szövegekkel, amelyek az ókori görögöktől egészen a Falkland-szigeteki háborúig terjedő időszak egyes eseményeivel foglalkoznak. Nincs is ezzel gond, mindenki csinálja saját kedve szerint. Zeneileg viszont közel sem annyira precízen kivitelezett, és kevésbé grandiózus a produkció, mint az említett svéd csapat esetében. Kevesebb himnikus témát találunk itt, ellenben kőkemény power metalos íze van az egésznek.
Természetesen a lehetőségekhez képest igyekeznek dallamokkal is színezni a muzsikát, azonban ez két ponton szenved némileg csorbát. Először is túlságosan a ritmusozásra építik a szerzeményeket, a gitáros messze nem használja ki lehetőségeit, noha igen szép szólókat hoz helyenként. Másodszor pedig a szintit elnyomja a többi hangszer, emiatt nem igazán érvényesül az összképben. Mindkettőért kár, mert amúgy nem fakezű társaságról van szó, elég csak meghallgatni olyan szerzeményeket, mint a Marble King, az Overlord, vagy a Revolution World. A Nameless Hero líraija szinte kötelező darab, amúgy egész korrekt. Kicsit túlzásnak tartom azonban a közel egy órás játékidőt, nekem legalábbis belefáradt a fülem a végére, még a Battle Prayer epikus refrénje sem tudott igazán lelkesíteni, pedig szintén a jobban sikerült nóták közül való.
Ahogy említettem, zeneileg egész jól összerakott a végeredmény, Gus karcos, de dallamokra is képes orgánuma nagyszerűen forr egységbe a zenével. A ravennai Fear stúdiót valamelyik múltkori anyag kapcsán már dicsértem, ezúttal is gratulálhatnak maguknak, a stílushoz hű soundot tekergettek ki a pulton. Kritika csupán a billentyűs hangszer titkosításáért érheti őket, szerintem meglehetősen hátra került, persze lehet, hogy eleve így akarta a csapat. A lemezcím és a borító közötti koherenciát azonban megkérdőjelezem, szerintem elég gyengén sikerült kép...
Nem rossz a maga nemében, bemutatkozásként nagyon is megállja a helyét, kíváncsian várom a folytatást. Tradicionális fémhívőknek ajánlott anyag, véleményem szerint azonban a kiadótárs Battleroar legutóbbi lemeze azért egy fokkal jobb volt.
http://www.metalcrypt.com/pages/review.php?revid=5730
3/5
Overmaster are a Power Metal band from Italy and, contrary to the style that usually comes from that country, sound more like Germany's Brainstorm or Mob Rules than, say, Rhapsody of Fire. Their debut, Madness of War, is a crunchy, slightly dark affair, heavy on the guitar and lighter on the keyboards, though they are still used effectively. Overmaster have an international makeup as singer Gus Gabarro, formerly of White Skull, and drummer Carlos Cantatore, are from South America.
Overmaster put their best songwriting foot forward by starting Madness of War with the fantastic "Marble King" (after a two minute intro of keyboards and sounds of war). This song has a great riff and a chorus that sticks in your head like glue. The keyboards perfectly complement the guitar melodies. The next song, "Spartan Warriors," is also quite good, if not up to the level of the opener. What happens next is Overmaster seek to repeat the formula of the first two songs for the remainder of Madness of War. The resulting album, as a whole, gets stale quite quickly. None of the other songs stand out with any type of memorable chorus, riff or solo, until the last track, "Efialths." This is another beauty in the mold of the first couple of songs. Strings weave between the sounds of a beating heart then lead into furious double-kick drums and sharp, aggressive riffs. As with all the songs on Madness of War, the lyrics deal with the harsh realities of conflict, but this one is personal, and the emotion in Gabarro's is evident. Pino Sicari's guitar solo on "Efialths" is the best on the album. One thing I wish Gabarro would do is tone down the vibrato a bit. He has a very powerful voice, but the warbling can get irritating after a while.
So what you have is a solid, if unspectacular, album from Overmaster. They didn't release a masterpiece with Madness of War, but neither did burn the bridge before they even got across. Overmaster are a band to watch, especially if they can tighten up, and perhaps vary, their songwriting skills on their next effort.
http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/reviews/cd_3/o_2/overmaster_-_madness_of.htm
6/10
This band from Italy performs a Heavy/Epic hybrid with enough reference to IRON MAIDEN, BLIND GUARDIAN, MORGANA LEFAY and RHAPSODY, just to get a draft idea. OVERLORD was formed by Gus Gabarrò (WHITE SKULL) and Carlos (SKYLARK, IVORY). The band’s “Welcome To The Past” 2009 demo aimed to a record deal and Cruz Del Sur now releases the Italians’ first normal CD.
Listening to it for the first time, “Madness Of War” features a pompous intro and ten tracks you can certainly live without even if you’re a die-hard fan of this genre. Enough double bass drumming, good but ultra-predictable ‘teutonic’ guitar lines, choir vocals, some galloping bass content and a vocalist whose abilities seem to be of a far better level (with lots of exercise) than the one presented in this album. Gus can bring a pale mix of Bruce Dickinson, John Arch and Kai Hansen having his Latin timbre in mind, too. Good news is we do have in the keys/solos section: in more ‘just Heavy Metal’ songs these two parts tie well together and offer an interesting result not leaving you uninterested. It’s no wonder Gus amends his own dramatic/mourning parts over there, too.
After the 3rd, 4th or 5th spin some things are now shining. The production is not what I expected to listen to: kinda draft and demo-oriented, it was good news (weird!) the sound was somehow ‘true’ – along with the musical content I’d suffer some ‘faultless’ compressed production mix on top of the cake. The benefit of this choice is the eerie parts in “Madness Of War” that really benefit OVERMASTER’s will. The same goes for the lyrics stories: this album deals with “…the horrors of war and its different faces through the centuries, from the Ancient Greece era (“Marble King”, “Spartan Warriors”, “Battle Prayer” and “Efialths”
to the modern Malvinas/Falklands war (“Nameless Hero”
and the young suicide children in Middle East (“Children Of The Sand”
”…
and reading the lyrics I admit I got in the mood re-evaluating the songlist and the lurking OVERMASTER potential.
OK, a conscious verdict: the most let-down element in “Madness Of War” is that OVERMASTER seems to be trapped in their fear to dare write something that’s 100% their own. They show only little pieces of their expertise and that’s a pity since they (at times) can convince the fan they can pen better and – most of all – more ‘personal’ songs.
P.S.: It’s great at last one label decided to include the lyrics in the promo kit, to accompany/help the reviewer.
Stereokiller.com
4/5
Attention power metal bands who are stuck in the 80's- listen to OverMaster and learn how to progress. I admit, I snickered a little when I read the bio and saw the concept behind the album. Great, another pretentious flower metal band that will probably be nut-riding Helloween and Judas Priest, doing nothing to advance the genre. I am happy to admit I was way off. This band knows how to pay homage to the roots of power metal without chaining themselves to the template and losing their balls.
OverMaster hails from Italy. Singer Gus Gabarro sang for the Italian power metal band White Skull, and formed this band in 2006. The music is a thrashier rendition of European power metal. The riffing is very close to Testament and old Metallica, and the guitar solos are very crisp and tastefully written. The drums and bass hold the groove extremely well, whether playing slow to mid-tempos or blazing with hard, downbeat-driven double bass. Keyboardist Alexandros (yes, he only has one name) is also unnecessary, but his parts are tucked away enough in the mix so as not to be distracting or offensive. Gus Gabarro is a good, distinct singer who has a nice, edgy clean vocal style. He avoids many power metal stereotypes like trying to shatter glass with high notes. However, he does sing with a lot of rock & roll affectation that seems to be a bit much at times. As advanced as this is for a power metal album, his singing is the only thing that really dates it a little. However, as a child of the 80's I am not complaining, and the music on this is heavy and fast enough to hold my interest.
Madness of War is a concept album that chronicles war through the ages of recorded history. It's not sublte either, with titles like Spartan Warrior, Revolution World, and Children of the Sand. It's a bit direct, the lyrics don't leave much room for interpretation. It's ultimately irrelevant anyway. I don't listen to power metal for lyrics and concepts, I listen to be amazed by the songwriting, and in this case, OverMaster delivers. Even the ballad, Nameless Hero, is pretty good, and I usually hate power metal ballads. But the song that fucking slays me is Battle Prayer, holy fuck what a good song. What a nice surprise this was. Street date is April 23, 2010. Fans of aggressive and epic power metal, take note.
http://www.blistering.com/fastpage/fpengine.php/link/1/templateid/18893/tempidx/4/menuid/2
9/10
This is yet another batch of war stories. Ever since man took arms and fought his first battle against another human being years before our current war crisises, it was and it is madness, the Madness of War. Metal has always been the tip of the sword when it came to a long range of war stories, part true and part fiction, than any other musical genre (well most of them ignore painful subjects). As many that came before them, the emerging Overmaster from Italy came forth with their own battles and their horrors - no peace on this release.
Overmaster is the baby of the Argentinean vocalist, Gus Gabaro, former frontman of White Skull. After his departure from White Skull, Gabaro formed Overmaster as an aggressive European power metal entity with the assistance of other experienced Italian musicians from White Skull, Skylark, Doomsword and Edge of Forever. Together, the band and the great production crew of Fear studios, worked and released a debut album that gave another meaning to word "War,” on its rough side and on its lesser brutal aspects.
Madness of War is not your type of the speedy power metal with no bloody teeth. This album is like an untamed beast and with its utter heaviness, shows a true form of squeezing the life out of something with ample beatings. Along with melodic, rhythmic soaring vocals that helped to create flowing material, there are the guitars and bass, which maintain the heart of the album’s supremacy with strong melodies. With the toughness, there are the softer spots of acoustics, sing along like anthems of metal and loving touches of keyboards (because it does not have to be all around brutality right?) that create a wonderful metallic picture.
If you would like similarities, Overmaster is the Italian adaptation of Mystic Prophecy or Firewind and the heavier/cruder version of Hammerfall. As for influences, it seems like everything that had melodic edges, yet with a sense of power, and of course European like Iron Maiden and Helloween.
Overmaster created a musical piece that share both 80’s influences with bits of modernity to provide them with the tips of heaviness to really charge them up. The best offered tracks from this one are “Marble King,” “Children Of The Sand”,” “Efialths, ““Revolution World” and “Spartan Warriors.”
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=16018&lang=en
83/100
The fact that Italy is a great soil for melodic heavy and power metal is of course no secret. That again is established with the fantastic comeback album of Rhapsody Of Fire (also reviewed in this issue of Lords Of Metal), but also with Omermaster’s debut album ‘Madness Of War’.
Overmaster is the “brainchild” of Argentinean vocals Gustavo “Gus” Gabarro, whom the fanatic power metal experts would definitely remember from his work with White Skull. There where I wasn’t exactly charmed by Gabarro’s last performance with his former employer, I had some doubts about this album in the beginning. But as soon as the band makes a powerful start with the fantastic ‘Marble King’, I again realise that I mustn’t be prejudice. The track is provided with beautiful, technical guitar playing and atmospheric keyboards and immediately grabs your attention. Compared to White Skull’s ‘The Ring Of The Ancients’, Gabarro’s performance sounds very powerful and fit well to the music.
In general the music could be labelled as melodic heavy and power metal, but that would do the band too short. Overmaster has so much more to offer than your average power metal band. There were most colleagues in the genre can’t make a difference between melody and cheesiness, Overmaster delivers melodic power metal with balls! The songs are provided with catchy riffs with a thrashy edge, and the guitar sound is tastefully heavy, which remind me a bit of the later Testament. Even in the slower pieces the music remains powerful and the atmospheric keyboards set a threatening, somewhat post-apocalyptic feel, which also remind of the dark side of a band like Nevermore. I also must say that at some points the band reminds a bit of Shakra, which has mostly to do with Gabarro’s voice that show quite a lot of similarity to Mar Fox’s. His loud, somewhat rough voice also sees to the necessary diversity form many other colleagues in the genre.
‘Madness Of War’ is bovendien een zeer afwisselende plaat geworden, die ondanks zijn veelzijdige karakter toch makkelijk weg luistert, maar ook eentje die daarom niet snel verveelt. De krachtige, heldere productie zorgt er daarnaast voor dat de details niet verzuipen in het geheel. De nummers zijn tot slot zodanig verpakt dat men zowel behoorlijk hedendaags uit de verf komt, maar daarnaast het traditionele gevoel uit het oog te verliezen. Kortom; fans van het genre hebben een mooie band bij.
‘Madness Of War’ has fallen out as a highly variable album and despite its diverse character it’s also quite easy listening at the same time. The clear and powerful production makes sure that the details don’t get lost within the whole picture. And last but not least, the songs sound rather updated, but without losing the traditional feel out of sight. In short I can only say that fans of the melodic heavy and power metal genre can embrace this band.
http://www.fueled-magazine.com/
57/100
The album: Overmaster was founded in 2006 after singer Gustavo left the Italian power metal band White Skull. 'Madness Of War' brings us heavy progressive music with a German-Italian accent. Though, I'm dissapointed in this release. Gus is not a good singer, his voice is too raw for progressive music and he's often hard to listen at. Secondly, his English is as bad as my Japanese. The accent is really terrible. The music on the other hand is quite OK and sometimes surprising. The guitar sound is bloody heavy and sometimes a bit dark with the nessesary progressive influences and it fits right with the keyboards. With a good vocalist, I would have given the band at least 70/100. What a pitty.
Conclusion: Take a listen to the album before you buy it. Musically viewed, their are some surprises on the album.
