Signum Regis - Signum Regis

Signum Regis is a band founded by the bass player and songwriter Ronnie Konig in 2007, surving the purpose of composing different music than his regular band, used to play. Hiring one of the most gifted vocalists (Goran Edman), who has worked with guitar heroes such as John Norum (Total Control) and  Yngwie J. Malmsteen (Eclipse - Fire and Ice) among others, has turned to be a very inspired idea for the whole efford. The whole mood of this release, is a mixture of both guitarists mentioned above, with the influence of the second one to appear more obvious, plus a bit of Helloween - Gamma Ray, Power Metal style. So the first thing that you notice is, the effort to immitate Malmsteen’s approach (especially Edman’s era) and his trademark neoclassical sound, with Goran’s vocals serving this purpose, at a point. The real power of this album is in the catchy chorouses and the well-taken-care-of vocal arrangments, made by the band. Moreover Tommy Hansens’ mastering is resulting in a typical Power Metal ("European scool") sounding cd. We listen to some interesting songs like "All Over The World" (which brings in mind Gamma Ray’s "Powerplant" era), "Neverland", "Bright Days Of Glory" (sounding like Heaven’s Gate’s early days) and "The Rain" (with some great riffing ideas). We also find some less interesting songs like "Passionate Love" (a slower tempo ballad-like one), "Mountain Haze" (instrumental) and some stodgy ones like "Follow The Light" (with Yngwie-riffing everywhere) and "Forever And A Day". At this point, I would like to mention the highlight of "Signum Regis", which would be "The Ten Thousand", a "thunderous" composition with great vocal lines, fantastic guitar job, passionate performance by Edman and extremely inspired chorus. "Silence Roar", which closes this average release, is another neoclassic-inspired song with a part of the solo, taken from W.A. Mozart(!!) composition. Endind, here we deal with an easy listening album, with some good and a few great ideas, which we may have heard before by others many times in the past, but with Goran behind the mic, they seem to gain more in prestige matters.
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\r\nJohny "L.O.V.E. Machine" Litinakis
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\r\nLine up:
\r\n:.: Goran Edman - vocals
\r\n:.: Ronnie Konig - bassguitar
\r\n:.: Filip Kolus - guitar
\r\n:.: Ado Kalaber - guitar
\r\n:.: Ludek Struhar - drums
\r\n:.: Jan Tupy - keyboards
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