After two years, Volturian return with Red Dragon, the follow up album to their debut Crimson, and veer even further toward the pop metal side of things compared to the edgier, heavier symphonic metal of their first release.
If one goes back far enough, at this point almost 10 years, there was another band, Sleeping Romance, that featured the incredible vocals of Federica Lanna. In Volturian, Federica joins Federico Mondelli (Frozen Crown) in a new project that combines Federica’s vocals with symphonic metal elements and a good bit of electronic music with distinct pop sensibilities. Finding information on foreign bands more than a month before their album drops is a bit of challenge. What we do know is that in addition to Federico, bass player Massimiliano Rossi is also from Frozen Crown and for Red Dragon, the band added Andrea Zannin on drums. Immediately on listening to Red Dragon it becomes apparent the band has been able to spend more time on the mixing and mastering than on Crimson with everything seeming crisper allowing subtlety in the overall sound to be better appreciated.
In the big picture, the overall approach to songwriting and composition is not terribly different than on Crimson with the band choosing the same blend of hard rock and pop metal with electronic elements mostly in support of Federica’s vocals, which remain equally impressive as in the past. To me, the bass of Massimiliano Rossi seems to play a bigger role in many of the songs compared to the first album with several like “Harley”, “Empty World”, “Burn it Up”, and “Bury Me” showcasing the low end.
‘Empty World’ is the third single taken from the second Volturian album “Red Dragon”, set to be released on May 20th. via Scarlet Records.