Empyrios - Zion

If this is the kind of stuff you can produce with home studios and where no one has to be in the same room, I'm sold.The band Empyrios has only been around a few years but has managed to garner no small amount of accolades for their music. Formed by DGM guitarist Simone Mularoni, every one of its talented members have been touring relentlessly with other bands in between albums, leaving no downtime in those years. Amazingly, they've still managed to craft a fantastic new studio album in Zion, via long distance relationship, that feels as cohesive, melodic, and heavy as anything out there in the metal scene today.

The best way I can describe them is a mix of Symphony X, Ark and Angra. But while the lead guitar work stands out most for me, don't believe for a second that the rest of the band is riding anyone's coat tails. This is an outfit of tight, professional musicians from the drummer to the singer, and everyone is an integral part of Empyrios' huge sound.

The Bottom Line: This is more great, heavy, bad-ass progressive power metal from Italy in the vein of DGM (who shares guitarists with Empyrios). If you dig powerful melodic music like Ark or Jorn Lande, check these dudes out. Sbrigati!

Tracks To Make Your Head Fear Its Inevitable, Furious Banging: Nescience, Reverie, Renovation, Zion, and Wormhole

- Genghis is having a serious case of guitar hero worship lately...