Bluedawn - Bluedawn (CD)

Record Label: Black Widow Records.

Blue Dawn’s quick rise to prominence in Northern Italy may have gained them a loyal following in a short space of time, but musically this release suffers because of it.

Formed in 2009 by experienced Genova musicians Andrea Di Martino (drums) and Enrico Lanciaprima (bass) they quickly recruited vocalist Monica Santo and went through a series of auditions to find a guitarist after their original choice, ‘La Faci’ was forced to leave, due to heath issues.

Snapped up quickly by Black Widow Records, the quartet began recording demo tracks in no time at all, however, the euphoric excitement of recording a full-length debut, appears to have had a negative effect on the songwriting and ideas process.

Although the quartet name checks the likes of: Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as influences, Blue Dawn’s guitar-driven hard rock is loaded with goth-tinged vocals and the sweep and grandeur of symphonic-prog.

The overblown orchestral flourish of ‘Crossing The Acheron’ is a statement of Euro-metal intent, and an early attempt to appeal to the fans of mainstream melodramatic metal such as: Evanescence and Nightwish.

In contrast, the conventional driving metal slab of ‘The Hell I Am’ demonstrates what a great falsetto Monica Santo possesses, as her soaring operatic voice adds much needed character into a band that covers the been-there-down-that sound of ‘80s metal.

‘Inner Wounds’ floats past fairly anonymously, before the slightly, punchier ‘Dead Zone’ incorporates the haunted quality of spiritualised metal. Unfortunately for the Italian’s there are too many tracks that apart from creating dark and atmospheric illusions do not utilise the potential of guitarist Paolo Cruschelli, and this release therefore suffers.

Concluding with the lengthy and slightly bizarre eight-minute accordion-rock passage of ‘Deconstructing People’ Blue Dawn is a mixed affair - the majority of the time merely competent, yet at others gothically grand.