Now that's a band that don't follow any trends, and that originality and spirit puts back a smile on my face again.

Highly inspired by Classical music, the Italians Arachnes (which means spiders in Greek by the way) are a band full of surprises, that demonstrates impressive musicianship throughout a releases that don't lack surprises. Basically it's power metal. On top of that will flow some totally unpredicted surprises, like operatic choirs that will simply leaves you there, begging for more or asking yourself if you really heard what you heard. Of course that was only for the first track, no need to use the same recipe for each song (also I'm sure it would have been pretty cool). But no, instead this excellent band will do something different each time (but staying true to their roots : power metal inspired from classical)... I love the first song called Arachne, after Hollywoodian Metal (Rhapsody), welcome the Operatic Metal !!!! Impressive to say the least. From square Power Metal riffs (very heavy riffs !!!) to fantastic guitar solos, wisely used keyboard along with very good vocals : it feels like a demonstration !

Do you like Power ? what about Prog ? and melody ? well, I urge you to check these guys right away, cause they have it all my friends. The album contains 16 tracks (intros & instrumentals included) !! Amongst which you'll find 3 instrumental tracks (Suite in a minor : Vivace, Moderato, Adagio) that alone make it worth to buy the album (Satriani & Rondat fans, wake up, this one's for you).

I was blown away by these guys, although the album contains a couple of tracks that are quite medium compared to the rest of the album, Arachnes rejoins my very short list of favorite Prog bands. With an excellent production that should set an example to follow from other bands coming from Italy. A very good release that shows a lot of hopes for the future of this band ! I personally hope they'll exploit their epic and operatic sound a little more. Congratulations !!!