vote
7.0
- Bands:
EMBRACE OF SOULS - Duration: 00:43:04
- Available from: 05/22/2026
- Label:
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Rockshots
Embrace Of Soul is a project born a few years ago from the mind of drummer Michele Olmi, a name well known in the Italian scene for his past in reality such as Skeletoon, Chronosfear and Spellblast.
Having started in 2021 with the good debut “The Number Of Destiny”, the band subsequently changed its physiognomy in part, replacing the original singer Giacomo Voli with the almost homonymous Giacomo Rossi and inserting the soprano Martina Mazzeo into the line-up, while remaining faithful to two characteristics that had been immutable until then: the devotion to the melodic power of the European school and the tendency to surround themselves with numerous guests.
This third album, however, seems to distance itself slightly from both coordinates: the music moves towards a more symphonic approach than a purely power one, while the guest department is almost completely eliminated, except for the presence of the 'usual' Morby (Domine), now in his third collaboration with the group.
A choice which, in hindsight, turns out to be anything but problematic: especially on the vocal front, Rossi and Mazzeo demonstrate that they can perfectly handle the weight of the entire work; the former appears fully at ease with the proposed genre, while the latter convinces with elegance, stage presence and interpretative quality.
As mentioned, the music of this new chapter – while remaining anchored to the power so dear to Olmi – seems to favor elegance and drama more than pure speed. To be clear, more aggressive episodes like “My Blade Will Fall On You” from the previous album or the almost melodic death outbursts of “Welcome To My Hell” have no place here. The songs tend rather to move within more uniform and controlled coordinates, but in a positive sense: the average level rises and the album gives up looking for the impact in favor of greater cohesion.
It is precisely the compactness that represents the true strong point of the album: the various chapters are all well constructed, they naturally intertwine with the lyrical concept – set in a medieval world torn apart by the war between the living and the dead – and rarely show moments of failure. However, some episodes stand out more than others: the final “Desolate Lands”, for example, strikes for its epic inspiration, while “Sacrifice” convinces thanks to the successful duets between the two singers.
Ultimately, the ship continues to sail in safe waters. The album is well made, flows easily and does not tire, while the lack of some stand-out moments is compensated by the general care with which everything was assembled.
Perhaps, if you think about it, however, it is precisely on the strictly compositional front that Embrace Of Soul can still make a further leap: the riffing and orchestrations certainly work well in supporting atmosphere and narrative, but on this work they rarely manage to really imprint themselves in the memory or clearly characterize the individual episodes. Of course, everything is very refined and well put together, but that compositional spark or musical solution capable of making the sound immediately recognisable, which sometimes emerged in previous albums, is still missing.
For now – and we're only on the third album – this may be enough. It will be interesting to understand if in the future Embrace Of Soul will feel the need to dare more and leave this compositional comfort zone; from what we have heard so far, the means to achieve this seem to be all there.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
