Violet Sun – “Loneliness in Supremacy” (2010)

Label : Melodic Rock Records

Review by Tony Cannella

Violet Sun is a Symphonic/Progressive metal band from Italy. Their just released debut is called, “Loneliness in Supremacy”. On this disc, the band offer up an hour’s worth of stellar and classy music. Violet Sun are led by the duel male/female vocals of Alessandra Amata (she also plays piano on the disc) and multi-instrumentalist Dario Grillo. The band is completed by the driving drum work of Alex Grillo. Rather than go with the tried and true method of pairing a great female vocalist with a more rough or extreme male singer, Violet Sun have gone the opposite route, as the vocals provided by Dario Grillo are more along the lines of a traditional metal singer. Sure, there are other bands that do it this way, but very few utilize it to perfection the way Violet Sun do. The songs on “Loneliness in Supremacy” feature some great bombastic moments and some of the songs have an almost 70s prog rock feel to them. That is not to say that their music sounds dated, to the contrary their sound is fresh and exciting. Violet Sun play with different tempos and even to add a typically un-metal instrument like saxophone on a couple of songs. Female vocalist Alessandra Amata has a great range. She can sing the mid-tempo stuff, let it rip on the rockier songs and even does some operatic type stuff if the song calls for it. The opening track, “Dust in the Wind” (no, not the Kansas classic) is a solid opener. My favorite track would have to be the excellent, “Falling in Love” (one of the songs that features sax). I love the give and take between the two vocalists and the overall musicianship is just first rate. Other highlights include: “Where Is My Way Home”, “Pray on the Grave”, “When the Lights Go Down” and “Cross the Line”. What is it about the country of Italy that seems to produce so many great metal bands? You can add Violet Sun to the ever growing list of quality music to come from that country.

Rating – 90/100

Tracklist

1. Dust in the Wind
2. Inside Out
3. Midnight (Instrumental)
4. When the Lights Go Down
5. Cross the Line
6. Falling in Love
7. Where Is My Way Home
8. My Flame Still Burns
9. Pray on the Grave
10. Break Your Chains
11. Synthetic Pleasures
12. Loneliness in Supremacy (Instrumental)

Line Up

• Alessandra Amata – Vocals, Piano
• Dario Grillo – Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards
• Alex Grillo – Drums

Links

MySpace * Facebook