Album Review: The 7th Guild – Triumviro (Scarlet Records)

Power metal goes opera with the debut album, Triumviro, from The 7th Guild, due for release on the 21st of February via Scarlet Records.

The 7th Guild came to exist from the vision of Skeletoon’s Tomi Fooler back in 2021. The idea being to put together a trio of commanding metal singers in the vein of the legendary Three Tenors and pay homage to their rich Italian cultural heritage. Enter Rhapsody Of Fire’s Giacomo Voli and former Vision Divine/Derdian’s Ivan Giannini. Witht he trio in place, existence was breathed into this vision and The 7th Guild came to be.

The 7th Guild are a power metal/symphonic metal band delivering catchy power metal melodies wrapped in an operatic music style; classic orchestral arrangements meet bombastic cinematic patterns, resulting in a wonderful choral result. Triumviro is a journey through the most iconic Italian arts form led by compelling songs that combines the majesty of opera and the attitude of symphonic power metal.

The 7th Guild is Tomi Fooler – vocals, Giacomo Voli and Ivan Giannini on vocals. Triumviro then also features Simone Mularoni on guitars, Francesco Ferraro on bass, Daniele Mazza on orchestras and arrangements, Alessio Lucatti on keyboards and piano and Michael Ehrè on drums.

Triumviro is produced, mixed and mastered by Tomi Fooler, Simone Mularoni and Simone Bertozzi at Domination Studio. It comes with cover art by Thomas Everhard (Edguy, Avantasia, Therion).

Triumviro is “a journey through the most iconic Italian arts form led by compelling songs that combines the majesty of opera and the attitude of symphonic power metal.” Sounds pretty cool right? With 9 tracks to get stuck into, Triumviro kicks off with Holy Land. As a new band, and a debut album, opening songs are very important as they really are the famed “first impression”. As far as first impressions here go, it’s a bit mild. It’s a good song, it has all of the components you would expect for a power metal/symphonic metal song led by a collective of expert vocalists.

Strong lead guitar melody, nice orchestral backing, and a strong pace led by decent riffs, drums and bass lines. Vocally, it’s impressive with expectedly great harmonisation. It’s all very good, but it lacks something too. A little bit of something special to make it stand out as anything other than another decent power metal song. There is a lack of catchiness. Some moment, or hook, that will repeat over and over in your head so while it is nice to listen to, full of cool moments, it won’t stick, I don’t think. The 7th Guild makes a better impression with a neat guitar melody in the intro and bridges creating that repetitive, memorable moment. The chorus is catchier and there is a nice flow to the verses and I really like the solo.

Glorious stands out as the king of the opening tracks so far. The pace switches, bringing piano and a softer, emotional approach to the opening section. A mix of English and Italian vocals add depth, and it feels grand and epic, which is what I hoped for on Triumviro. It’s overly dramatic, in the best possible way and is genuinely quite beautiful to listen to. Vocals are exceptional and all work so well off each other while the orchestration enhances the track perfectly at the right points and places. The solo screams passion too, perfectly fitting the grandeur of the song. This is where The 7th Guild can excel.

La Promessa Cremisi keeps the quality on the up too with another dramatic approach to music that has an operatic or theatrical feel to it. That comes through in the way the vocals are delivered in the verses, as well as the backing orchestration and the flow of the song. Sung predominantly in Italian, with the exceptional singers at the helm, it really does bring visions of Italian opera and the famed Tenors to mind. The chorus is huge – the epitome of epic with a massive choir adding further layers. A nice strong drum and bass rhythm keeps a chunky edge to the music while the lead guitars drip melody and passion where required. After a mild start to the album, these last two tracks are exceptional. I hope this continues now.

In Nomine Patris is another superb song and we have plenty of horns. You have to love horns in power metal! The intro is bombastic with massive orchestral sounds mixing nicely with fast and furious drums and riffs. It’s another well sung, very dramatic piece of work and comes packing a solid chorus, plenty of choirs and a fiery pace. Time comes next, mixing up the style a little bit at its start with a sweet piano melody and soft singing. It evolves with added vocal harmonies and emphasis all over the same piano sounds and a growing orchestral backing. It’s very nice and beautifully sung, delivering the expected ballad style track, in some style.

Guardians of Eternity brings the energy back up though with a solid mid-tempo rhythm. Pounding drums and nice riffs give it a meaty feel while the flair comes from the orchestral backing and of course the soaring vocals. I really like the flow of the verses. The different singers work off of each other nicely and it feels epic. Even more so when we get a huge solo, followed immediately by an instrumental section with massive orchestral sounds and opera singing. We reach the penultimate track of Triumviro next, titled The Metal Charade.

Speed is a huge part of this song with an intense flurry of guitars, drums and backing. It starts immediately, like literally from the first millisecond we are going at hyper-speed.  Of course, the style of singing sometimes masks the speed and talent on the instruments but there is a lot of complex music here as well as expert singing. This track flies by in a flurry of power and passion. Strong choruses, great music, powerful backing – it’s a top-class symphonic metal track. And that leads us nicely into the closing track of Triumviro with Fairy Tale.

You feel that The 7th Guild have attempted to create a massive, epic ending to the album with this song. It pushes boundaries on the melodramatic, that’s for sure. I’m not 1005 convinced it worked though. It has all of the special components shown across Triumviro so far with expert singing, stunning writing, moments of chunky metal, flair guitarwork etc….. but similar to the opener, I find that while I appreciate all of the separate components, it isn’t all coming together for me into a song. Take those moments, and it’s amazing – I love the solo. I love the gentler tinkling bells and chimes, there are moments of strong drumming and bassy riffs. It has a lot going for it and still shows remarkable ability and talent, but just doesn’t quite come together for me.

Triumviro is a very strong album from some exceptionally gifted artists. For me personally, it’s opener, and closer, aren’t quite as strong as everything that came in the middle. That’s a little weird. You really want a big start to get you in the mood, and a big closer to make you want to come back fro more. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad – not even close. The difference between the best songs, and the others, is miniscule and even at their very rare low points, you can’t help but marvel at the talent and skill on show. It’s a very strong album, from a talented band who can and will leave a big mark on symphonic/power metal when this releases.

Tracklist:

1. Holy Land
2. The 7th Guild
3. Glorious
4. La Promessa Cremisi
5. In Nomine Patris
6. Time
7. Guardians Of Eternity
8. The Metal Charade
9. Fairy Tale

The 7th Guild Links

Instagram – Facebook – Bandcamp – YouTube