Fake Healer: Two Worlds

A new band from Florence, Italy, Fake Healer came together in 2014 from the ashes of the short lived Dust Devil, and feature three ex-members of respected Italian Metallers Frozen Tears. Debut album, Two Worlds, finds the band staying true to their roots, a NWOBHM sound strongly in evidence, for while their biography suggests Fake Healer are a heavy metal band with some hard rock influences, in truth they sound like Iron Maiden.

Unsurprisingly for a band featuring musicians with good experience behind them, the compositions themselves are tight and focused, while the self handled production does a good, if unspectacular, job of letting the music speak for itself with little flash, or fuss. If however, there's one real negative, it's the walking pace much of the album finds itself in, a real feeling that if Fake Healer simply upped the tempo just a notch or two, the likes of "The Machinist (The Groove In The Grave)" or "Lonewolf" would instantly become much more exciting. As they are, like most of this album, you're left to wonder what might have been, an altogether too pedestrian approach leading to a remoteness that keeps the songs from making the desired impact.

Individually, the quartet don't fall short in any department, Alessio Taiti a fine, if slightly reserved singer with good range and strong control, guitarists Leonardo Taiti and Simone Cocco a riotous riff machine with a nice line in searing solos. Factor in a solid rhythm section in the shape of Massimiliano Dionigi on bass and Filippo Ferrucci on drums and Fake Healer have all the requisite elements to make a serious impression... if they'd simply put their foot on the gas and go for it. Don't get me wrong, there's much more to making a good metal album than simply rattling along at top lick from start to finish, but at the same time, if you start to zone out of an album due to the similar attack from song to song, then a little (or even quite a lot) more variance wouldn't go amiss. That's definitely the case here.

Fake Healer are a talented bunch who know their way round a riff and can put together some extremely catchy choruses. What they've achieved with Two Worlds is to create a strong opening statement that hits reasonably hard, but which lacks any real memorable staying power. A good start, but to stand out in the increasingly crowded metal market, Fake Healer need to bring at least one or two surprises to an otherwise predictable table.

Track Listing
1. Justice within
2. Lonewolf
3. Two worlds
4. Land grabbing
5. Rats in the den
6. The Machinist (the groove in the grave)
7. Killing the pain
8. Loud n'proud

Added: November 28th 2015
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Fake Healer on bandcamp
Hits: 1652
Language: english

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