Hailing from Italy, home of over-the-top "Hollywood Metal" as championed by Rhapsody Of Fire, Lunocode make their debut playing progressive tinged power metal. Rather than embellish upon their music with the symphonic tendencies that run rampant through the scene of late, Lunocode instead deftly blends strong song writing with a subdued sense of epic that should bring a smile to those listeners that have grown weary of the more recent fluff filled power metal output (and I know "fluff filled power metal" is redundant, but you have to admit it has reached new levels recently).

"Last Day Of The Earth" is an EP, not an actual full length album, so there are only five songs and one meaningless intro on display. "Flow, My Tears" is undoubtedly the strongest of the five, featuring good riff progression and a steady flow that never strays into uninteresting. Vocalist Cecilia Menghi is a pleasure to listen to, and despite a few moments of sounding strained to hit higher notes she provides a warm quality that gives the music a soul. "Universal Plan" follows with a slight drop in overall quality, but still retains the listeners interest with decent song writing and a killer chorus.

Unfortunately the remaining three songs do not maintain the momentum. "Heart Of The World" has some good moments, but overall suffers from too many ideas that don't gel together. "Silent Thoughts" is a ballad, and a good one, but is way too long. There are about four minutes that could be shaved off this tune to make it more accessible and much stronger as a whole. A metal audience can handle good ballads, but only in measured doses so constraint is neccesary. Finally "Invisible Tears" is a nice acoustic piece with Cecilia's best performance, but in context to the album it suffers from following the previous nine minute ballad. At this point the listener is either asleep or doing something else.

So what is the verdict? "Last Day Of The Earth" does its job, and leaves me eagerly anticipating Lunocode's first true album. There is a world of possibility for this young band, and they are a breath of fresh air for the stagnant power metal scene, but I encourage them to sharpen their song writing to a finer edge, so that the excess of the latter tracks gives way to the finer points of the former.
Metal Reviews