Exxplorer - Symphonies Of Steel
Exxplorer - Symphonies Of Steel
\r\nDuring the 80s a lot of bands popped out from the American heavy metal scene, many of which unfortunately couldn’t realize the career they deserved, mostly because of the circumstances that took place in the music industry back then. One of them is Exxplorer.
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\r\nThey were created in 1982 in Keansburg, New Jersey and their line up consisted of vocalist Lennie Rizzo, guitarists Ed Lavolpe and Kevin Kennedy, bassist Jimmy Gardner and drummer Mike Moyer. Under this line up they released their first demo in 1985 which included 3 tracks, and later on in the same year, they recorded and released their first album Symphonies of Steel, through Black Dragon Records. This first album included 10 new songs, since the band decided not to use any of the ones from their demo. The album immediately touched the followers of metal, mostly in Europe, since Black Dragon Records has its headquarters in France and that helped a lot in connecting the European audience with bands from America, and in creating a core of followers smaller but thicker than the one in the US.
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\r\nOf course, the warm welcome the album received was not just a result of sheer luck. Symphonies of Steel is highly influenced by the recently bloomed American power metal represented by bands like Jag Panzer and Helstar, and it includes a lot of rich in quality compositions, to the point where one can not easily find it’s flaws. Most of the songs have an epic touch, something which lets us easily categorize Exxplorer in the epic metal genre. Some of the songs that agree with the previous decision are Run For Tomorrow or Exxplorer with it’s really epic starting riff, or the slow playing Guilty As Charged. In general, this album is somewhere between epic and American power metal creating a result that offers one metal anthem after the other… Listen to World War III or Going to Hell and you will see that this is a compilation that should never be forgotten by the so called “experts” of the subject.
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\r\nAnother thing that one should notice is the really good production which leaves room for the really band’s really good ideas and the technical abilities of the musicians to shine. The bass guitar and the drums which are usually “buried”, have a really clear sound and the guitars have a unique sound which is not a burden to the ear. Last but not least, Lennie Rizzo’s explicit voice keeps going up and down the scale of octaves, resulting in incredible performances and cleverly avoiding over-singing the lyrics. The only flaw that I see in this album is it’s second track, Prelusion. It is a brief music theme played in the piano which works as an introduction to the third track, Run For Tomorrow, in the end of which we hear another similar theme. The problem is that Prelusion should be in the beginning of the album because instead of working as a better introduction, it “cuts” the flow in half, but then again… no harm done.
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\r\nUnfortunately, Exxplorer could not offer us some more musical diamonds like Symphonies of Steel, since the constant changes in their line up and music direction resulted in their next album (which came out in 1994) sounding slightly more progressive – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Still, Symphonies of Steel will forever remain a monument of American metal that one should take under consideration when referring to this particular scene.
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\r\nThey were created in 1982 in Keansburg, New Jersey and their line up consisted of vocalist Lennie Rizzo, guitarists Ed Lavolpe and Kevin Kennedy, bassist Jimmy Gardner and drummer Mike Moyer. Under this line up they released their first demo in 1985 which included 3 tracks, and later on in the same year, they recorded and released their first album Symphonies of Steel, through Black Dragon Records. This first album included 10 new songs, since the band decided not to use any of the ones from their demo. The album immediately touched the followers of metal, mostly in Europe, since Black Dragon Records has its headquarters in France and that helped a lot in connecting the European audience with bands from America, and in creating a core of followers smaller but thicker than the one in the US.
\r\n
\r\nOf course, the warm welcome the album received was not just a result of sheer luck. Symphonies of Steel is highly influenced by the recently bloomed American power metal represented by bands like Jag Panzer and Helstar, and it includes a lot of rich in quality compositions, to the point where one can not easily find it’s flaws. Most of the songs have an epic touch, something which lets us easily categorize Exxplorer in the epic metal genre. Some of the songs that agree with the previous decision are Run For Tomorrow or Exxplorer with it’s really epic starting riff, or the slow playing Guilty As Charged. In general, this album is somewhere between epic and American power metal creating a result that offers one metal anthem after the other… Listen to World War III or Going to Hell and you will see that this is a compilation that should never be forgotten by the so called “experts” of the subject.
\r\n
\r\nAnother thing that one should notice is the really good production which leaves room for the really band’s really good ideas and the technical abilities of the musicians to shine. The bass guitar and the drums which are usually “buried”, have a really clear sound and the guitars have a unique sound which is not a burden to the ear. Last but not least, Lennie Rizzo’s explicit voice keeps going up and down the scale of octaves, resulting in incredible performances and cleverly avoiding over-singing the lyrics. The only flaw that I see in this album is it’s second track, Prelusion. It is a brief music theme played in the piano which works as an introduction to the third track, Run For Tomorrow, in the end of which we hear another similar theme. The problem is that Prelusion should be in the beginning of the album because instead of working as a better introduction, it “cuts” the flow in half, but then again… no harm done.
\r\n
\r\nUnfortunately, Exxplorer could not offer us some more musical diamonds like Symphonies of Steel, since the constant changes in their line up and music direction resulted in their next album (which came out in 1994) sounding slightly more progressive – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Still, Symphonies of Steel will forever remain a monument of American metal that one should take under consideration when referring to this particular scene.
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\r\nLambros “Metalshock” Panetas
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\r\nTranslation in english: Iro Kapeloni
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\r\nTranslation in english: Iro Kapeloni
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