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UP the White Skull

07/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bands like Running Wild, Grave Digger and Manowar . White Skull are a female-fronted band from Italy following that cliché since 1991. They have three albums (WON'T BURN ALONE in 1995, EMBITTERED in 1997 and TALES FROM THE NORTH in 1999) and one EP (ASGARD from 1999) out so far. This is their fourth effort. It's a concept album about the istory of Rome (that becomes clear if you take a look at song titles like "Burn Rome Burn", "The Roman Empire" or "In Caesar We Trust"). Singer Federica De Boni has a typical metal voice similar to Doro Pesch or Lita Ford.But the songs often are too foreseeable, combining hyper-fast razor-sharp riffing and thunderous drumming in the vein of neo-classical bands like Stratovarius, Pegazus etc. with the hymnal choruses of the above mentioned true metal acts. The band already played on the "Harley Davidson festival". That says it all.If you are one of the guys standing in the first row at Running Wild concerts with your studded leather glove raised into the air, then you could like this band."

Italian answer to Blind Guardian

06/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The album just explodes from start to finish. My favorites are"High Treason", "The Roman Empire" and "Greedy Rome" is power metal at it's very best. You know what's really good about this album? Well, yes, Frederica De Boni's vocals are fabulous. She sounds Metal and feminine at the same time. The musicianship is incredible,and while they play some dazzling riffs and solos, the music is never pompous or overblown. White Skull seems to have a real sense of how to create solid music that is unified and not designed to glorify one instrument to the exclusion of the others-not that I mind the pompous overblown music from Rhapsody! But the bottom line is that White Skull are a tight unit. And let me say it again, Frederica De Boni's vocals are absolutely fabulous."