Odyssea is the brainchild of one Pier Gonella from Italy. Mr. G. had the unenviable job of replacing Olaf Thorsen in Labyrinth following the release of the Sons Of Thunder album. While Pier's time in Labyrinth can be debated by fans until the end of time, he also had a side project called Odyssea. When Labyrinth was straying away from their speedy roots with albums such as Freeman and 6 Days To Nowhere, Odyssea was an outlet for the classic speed metal sound. Pier even included a bunch of electronic effects on the 2005 album Tears In Floods that harkened back to the earliest days of Labyrinth.

Well, around 2010, Olaf Thorsen came back to Labyrinth and Pier struck out on his own and eventually in 2015 we were graced with a new Odyssea album. Storm is a completely different outing than Tears In Floods. There are definitely some improvements in certain areas, and there is much more experimentation involved with Storm. This doesn't mean that this is slow or mid tempo idling boredom, there is still a vast amount of speed. However, the electronics aspect has been dialed way back, and the guitars have changed their tone to more downtuned, lower register riffing. This is evident from the very first strains of opener, No Compromises. However, despite assaulting the listener with a riff that has the potential to become something...frightening, Pier busts out melodic licks and harmonious melodies. He also has much more variety in his guitar solo techniques. Again, using No Compromises as an example, the solo in that song begins with almost Tom Morello like squeals and beeps that Pier is creating with his hands rather than falling back on neoclassical licks in every solo section.

There has been an improvement in the vocal department for Odyssea. This isn't a slight on their former singer, but when Rob Tiranti handles the lion's share of the vocal duties, you've made an improvement. There are some other guest vocals that are on the album but to be honest, they aren't nearly as good as the Tiranti helmed tracks. There is an excellent instrumental, Apocalypse Pt.2, and this one is the only song where there is a strong electronic feel. While this is a super fast and adrenaline filled number, it isn't a typical shredfest by any means. Like much electronic music, this has a manic and rapid melody that repeats and shifts subtly. There is also a small treat at the end of the album where Odyssea have re-recorded Fly from the debut album. This song was notable for being the only one where Tiranti guested on from Tears In Floods. While this new version has cleaner sounding guitars (in terms of production value, not playing quality) I prefer the original. The chorus on this new one has some added "football chant" choirs that don't gel too well with me. Not that I have anything against football. Please don't hurt me Pele.

I don't really know what Pier is planning on doing with Odyssea. I get the feeling that this release was put out only because he had some small name recognition from the previous album. Storm has a much more "project" feel to it. I think when Pier first started Odyssea he intended it to be a full band and now it's just an outlet for him and whatever he comes up with. A third album would be most certainly welcome, it's been five years since this one was released, so, hey. I'd enjoy it.