Tular – “The Truth Behind the Mask” (2008)

Label : Renaissance Records

Review by Tony Cannella

Tular are a female fronted 5-piece symphonic, operatic metal band from Italy. Their current band line-up is  Francesca Martini (Vocals), Emmanuele Palmieri (Lead guitar & orchestration), Michele Raspanti (Bass), Alessandro Lacobellis (Guitar) and David Folchitto (Drums). Their debut album is entitled “The Truth Behind the Mask”. The CD begins with the 1-minute atmospheric intro track “Walking Through the Line”. This piece features only heavy orchestrated music and spoken parts by singer Francesca Martini. It certainly does a good job in building anticipation for the next track “Witch!” This song is very heavy and showcases the great soprano vocals of Francesca. A great guitar solo by Emanuele is also on display. Next, is a cover of the Bon Jovi song, “We Rule the Night”. This choice of a song to cover is definitely a surprise but the band does an excellent job on it and definitely put their own stamp on it. Next is “My Thief”. This song starts off with a cool bit of orchestration before launching into the song. Francesca really does an excellent job on this song as she really shows what a great range she has. This was one of the highlights for me. Next we have “Let It Rain”. This is a very dramatic mid-tempo tune and one of the very best offered up on this collection. The next song, “Fairy Legend” starts off slow and then builds into an atmospheric masterpiece. Other highlights include: “Lucretia”, “Dark White Flame”, “Darkest Room” and “Heroes”. Perhaps the biggest highlight for me was “Where Doves Dare”. The band delivers excellent performances all around and really deliver the goods here. The final two songs are not listed on the CD. This first song is a different mix of the song “Darkest Room” with the lyrics sung in Italian. The song also has a bit of a middle eastern vibe in the beginning. Both versions of the sung are really good but I think I prefer this one. The second unlisted bonus track is another cover song. This time the band takes on the Kiss song “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”. Definitely another interesting choice of remakes but they once again do a very good job. The orchestration on the song and the male background vocals are also a nice touch. I enjoyed “The Truth Behind the Mask”. The songs and musicianship are good. The song writing is excellent with the majority being done by Emanuele and Francesca. It is a strong debut that features 14-songs and 60-minutes worth of pure bombastic and symphonic metal paradise.