TRIOXIA – Flames Of Prophecy

Trioxia’s first full length CD “Flames of Prophecy” was released in June 2004. Most of the guys in the band were born in the mid-1980s, and of course it’s crude to break a young boy’s heart, but unfortunately their debut is just as embarrassing as watching these funny World Idol cuts that are being sent around on the internet for the whole planet’s amusement.

It basically seems that these young guys are somewhat talented musicians, but that they are having problems deciding what direction they are going. This is a good attempt on making Heavy Metal, and it involves some great guitar solos, as well as fantastic acoustic guitar play on their last song “In the Eyes of the End.” However, when the keyboardist is playing chords, it reminds of house music and nursery rhymes in the background, and the song switches from common Heavy Metal to sounding like the soundtrack from Rowan Atkinson’s black humor TV — The Black Adder — it just makes you wonder if this is a joke.

Their home page states that this production is an impressive recording in every detail, but of course that depends what’s being compared. Your average garage band might be impressed by this production, but compared to big commercial bands, the production here is garbage. The vocals are very “on top” of the rest of the music, and the singer’s voice seems very out of tune a lot of times. Actually, just changing the vocalist would have done wonders for Trioxia.

A typical mistake for Italian Heavy Metal bands is that they are not focusing enough on pronunciation. The singer almost sounds like he has a lisp. Especially funny vocals can be found on the song “Justice (get out of here)” where the singer sounds like actor Hugh Grant from the mobster movie Mickey Blue Eyes when he is trying to say “Get out of Here.”

Other than that, there are good refrains on “Ready 4 Damnation” and “Hands of Revenge,” and some great keyboard sounds (even if they don’t really fit in). But for now, Trioxia should stick to playing local bars and work on their pronunciations, and also try to make better lyrics.

Rap “supasta” 50 cent can get away with crappy lyrics like “I’ll take you to the candy shop, I’ll let you lick the lollypop,” but Troixia will doubtfully have the same luck with “I’m alone but pretty good, now get back or become my food!” Especially after the rest of their lyrics are about marching battlefields and gazing over their deserted lands… and nothing more about food.