The Things I've Left

Lykaion is band based out of the Rome, Italy area and have been in existence since 2000. They originally began as more of a power metal outfit and consisted of Luca Mazzilli vocals, Fabio Valentini and Alessandro Sforza on guitars, Valerio Miseferi bass, and Andrea Alberti drums. In 2005, they released their first demo entitled Behind a Whisper. Vocalist Luca Mazzilli left the band later that year and they embarked on a search for a new vocalist. Finally bringing in a female vocalist by the name of Tiziana Palmieri, it allowed the band to expand their music by taking advantage of the female voice as well as developing a sound that was not only more aggressive than before but also saw lots of atmospheric changes and an overall progressive texture to their music emerging. This new demo entitled The Things I've Left is the band's latest offering and their first recordings with their new vocalist.

Comparisons can be made to fellow countrymen Lacuna Coil, due largely to Tiziana's vocal style but Lykaion has it's roots firmly entrenched into a more modern progressive heavy metal sound. The opening track Desert Of Emotions is full of Angel Dust style metal riffing, accompanied by hammering double bass. The extra chunkiness in the guitars adds a nice Nevermore touch and with Tiziana's Doro style vocal delivery, the results are quite good. The softer, melodic interlude mid-track allows the more angelic side of her voice to shine front and center. Not A Farewell uses Queensryche atmospheric guitar harmonies over more blasting heavy riffs with a very strong and emotional vocal by Tiziana. A killer buzz-saw guitar tone and modern heavy and chunky riffing fuels the track Serenity and once again Tiziana's similarities to Doro Pesch are uncanny. This track has an overall more progressive edge than any of the others but still looms large with the huge riffs. The last track Emptiness uses an even harder and more extreme sound complete with some accompanying harsh male vocals by guitarist Alessandro Sforza. Despite the more aggressive tone, quieter interludes and melodic changes add a nice atmospheric touch.

Lykaion's music has a slight (very slight) gothic edge to it and there are times when older Lacuna Coil comes to mind with their music but overall, they are much heavier riff-wise and besides the female vocals, have more in common with bands like Angel Dust and Nevermore. I also hear influences from other bands like Paradise Lost and Katatonia to name a few. Tiziana Palmieri has a great, soaring and powerful voice and it's her vocal performance that just might make people take notice. Not to detract from the great riffing and song arrangements, but it's her voice that just might be the selling point for this band. Song writing improvements will naturally come with more experience and overall, I like what I hear in this band very much. I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for them as they are actively pursuing a recording contract.

Check out there Myspace page here to hear all of the songs on this release.