Well, Labyrinth are back! Again? At the time of Architecture Of A God's release it had been seven years since the comeback album Return To Heaven Denied Part 2 had been let loose upon the world. There's three guys here that have been with the band for so long, they are essential to the sound of Labyrinth. Olaf Thorsen and fellow guitarist Andrea Cantarelli have been strumming together since their small and humble beginnings, while singer Roberto Tiranti has held the vocal position since 1997. Olaf left Labyrinth following the 2001 release of Sons Of Thunder. The band went on to release three albums without him, one stellar amazing collection of songs in the self titled album, and two extremely experimental discs with Freeman and 6 Days To Nowhere. Apparently I'm the only person in the world who really liked Freeman seeing as everyone else hates it, but thankfully no one else liked 6 Days To Nowhere either. The fan uproar over these two highly unorthodox releases was so great that Olaf came back and they popped out the aforementioned comeback album. Following this, things went quiet in the Labyrinth camp for awhile. Come 2016 and Olaf and the guys must have been bitten by the music bug because the core trio of Olaf, Andrea, and Roberto got together again, got a couple randos to play drums and bass, and Olaf brought over his ex Vision Divine bandmate, Oleg Smirnoff, to play keyboards.

While there are definitely a hefty amount of speedy fast songs, there is an equal amount of mid tempo songs that have many delicate sections in them. The production has also gotten more "earthy" and grounded in feel, and not nearly as "dream like" such as with the first Return To Heaven Denied. Two of these speedy fast songs are the opener Bullets and Take On My Legacy. Both have lots of melodic soloing in them and the keyboards are running wild through both tracks. A New Dream starts off with some acoustic passages that get sprinkled throughout the song. During the outro, the melancholy acoustic guitar brings to mind the forlorn melody of Boys Of Summer by Don Henley. This acoustic treatment shows up again in a terrific way in Someone Says.

The centerpiece of the album is the almost nine minute long title track which gets its own separate intro. Random Logic has whispered Italian passages, some mournful vocal work from Tiranti, and a morose piano being played in a solemn like manner. Speaking of Roberto Tiranti, he is the highlight of the long and winding title track. The chorus is on the verge of being completely awkward in delivery with lots of words and complicated rhyme schemes, but he manages to make it work splendidly. Children is an instrumental cover by someone I'd never heard of, just like Feel from Return To Heaven Denied was a cover of a remix of a techno song I'd never heard of at the time. And like with Feel, this is a pretty cool upbeat instrumental that is led by keyboards. We Belong To Yesterday is a monster song that is tacked on near the conclusion of this album and should not be overlooked simply because it's on the ass end here. To compare it to another Labyrinth song, it would be very similar to Painting On The Wall. Both songs have these really cool suspended guitar chords that make the song pulse with vibrant, desperate energy. The melodic lickery that makes up the main riff sounds like a melodic drill bit trying to burst through an unbreakable membrane. A super cool moment is a lyrical call back to the actual song Return To Heaven Denied. Roberto has himself a little "DayafterDayafterDay" moment here that makes you stand at attention real fast. The album closes with a true ballad, the haunting and short, Diamond.

No one asked for this album but I am glad it exists. Even though Olaf is busy with his main band, Vision Divine (who has had original Labyrinth vocalist Fabio Lione in its ranks twice), there is a unique element to Labyrinth that can only be scratched by Labyrinth. Whether it's the techno inspired keyboards in some songs, the emotional mid tempo songs, or the breakneck speed of the solos when the band lets loose, the tripod of Olaf, Andrea, and Roberto have consistently delivered high quality music that pleases the listener.