vote
6.5
- Band:
ISLE OF THE CROSS - Duration: 00:58:12
- Available from: 05/07/2024
- Label:
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Rockshots Records
Retaining three-quarters of the line-up from his debut album, American composer and multi-instrumentalist Je Schneider releases “Faustus The Musical”, his second work under the name Isle Of The Cross, now a supergroup to transpose Christopher Marlowe's theatrical drama “The Tragical History of Life and Death of Doctor Faustus” into music.
The musical part, which in addition to the founder Schneider sees Eric Gillette (appreciated with Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy) on guitar, continues on the genre with which they made themselves known in 2020 with the debut “Excelsis”; therefore, with a progressive metal that ranges from power to extreme, from classical to ambient, in a good example of avant-garde that in some passages recalls Arcturus.
Returning to this second work, which in all respects is a real playDoctor Faustus (here played by Daniël de Jongh, already on the microphone with Textures, Black Nazareth and Crown Compass) makes a pact with Mephistopheles (played by Matthieu Romarin, singer of Uneven Structure) to increase his knowledge but in exchange he gives his soul to Lucifer (Charles Elliott of Abysmal Dawn), who will come to ask for it twenty-four years later. In this moment of time, the protagonist continues a dialogue with two angels (one good, the singer Diane Lee, and one evil) on what to do and never has second thoughts, but above all he does not use the knowledge at his disposal for anything useful.
Now almost at the end of his life, before giving up his soul to Lucifer, he makes Helen of Troy appear (Angela di Vincenzo, heard with Secret Rule) with whom he lets himself go in an embrace (the song “Immortal Kiss” very poetic and poignant) and in the last hour he takes his leave with a long soliloquy, which turns out to be, in this “Faustus The Musical” the song “Eleven's Hour” as well as one of the highest points of the metal opera, between continuous changes of atmosphere and various solos and verses with good musicality.
At the end of listening we can therefore understand that, if on the one hand it is certainly based on “Doctor Faust” that this metal opera takes its scenic timing, on the other hand the rendering on the disc is too flat and suffers from many explanatory didactic parts (the narrator is Amrit Sandhu, a very well-known voice in English television productions, of which he is a voice actor or narrator) or musical interludes that may make sense, for example in a live theatrical transposition, in the change of scenery but that on the disc dampen the pathos.
Even knowing that the intent (at least according to the title) is that of a musical, in fact, out of fourteen tracks, six are instrumental or short spoken descriptions of what is happening and, even if the symphonic and horrific crescendos create anticipation, they break up the listening experience too much. Fortunately, an excellent job in trying to make the general flow more fluid is due to the mastery in the mixing and mastering work of the now almost omnipresent Joost van der Broek (first heard in Epica, now behind dozens of high-level productions).
In conclusion, there are only four or five good songs, with vocal interweavings and dark atmospheres, which are what keep the whole “Faustus The Musical” going.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM