This band from Italy performs a Heavy/Epic hybrid with enough reference to IRON MAIDEN, BLIND GUARDIAN, MORGANA LEFAY and RHAPSODY, just to get a draft idea. OVERLORD was formed by Gus Gabarrò (WHITE SKULL) and Carlos (SKYLARK, IVORY). The band's "Welcome To The Past" 2009 demo aimed to a record deal and Cruz Del Sur now releases the Italians' first normal CD.

Listening to it for the first time, "Madness Of War" features a pompous intro and ten tracks you can certainly live without even if you're a die-hard fan of this genre. Enough double bass drumming, good but ultra-predictable 'teutonic' guitar lines, choir vocals, some galloping bass content and a vocalist whose abilities seem to be of a far better level (with lots of exercise) than the one presented in this album. Gus can bring a pale mix of Bruce Dickinson, John Arch and Kai Hansen having his Latin timbre in mind, too. Good news is we do have in the keys/solos section: in more 'just Heavy Metal' songs these two parts tie well together and offer an interesting result not leaving you uninterested. It's no wonder Gus amends his own dramatic/mourning parts over there, too.

After the 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th spin some things are now shining. The production is not what I expected to listen to: kinda draft and demo-oriented, it was good news (weird!) the sound was somehow 'true' - along with the musical content I'd suffer some 'faultless' compressed production mix on top of the cake. The benefit of this choice is the eerie parts in "Madness Of War" that really benefit OVERMASTER's will. The same goes for the lyrics stories: this album deals with "...the horrors of war and its different faces through the centuries, from the Ancient Greece era ("Marble King", "Spartan Warriors", "Battle Prayer" and "Efialths") to the modern Malvinas/Falklands war ("Nameless Hero") and the young suicide children in Middle East ("Children Of The Sand")"...) and reading the lyrics I admit I got in the mood re-evaluating the songlist and the lurking OVERMASTER potential.

OK, a conscious verdict: the most let-down element in "Madness Of War" is that OVERMASTER seems to be trapped in their fear to dare write something that's 100% their own. They show only little pieces of their expertise and that's a pity since they (at times) can convince the fan they can pen better and - most of all - more 'personal' songs.

P.S.: It's great at last one label decided to include the lyrics in the promo kit, to accompany/help the reviewer.