Lefay

The Seventh Seal (Noise)
by Martin Popoff

After three years away, half the band gone, a new name and a new label, (Morgana) Lefay can rightfully assume the throne alongside Nevermore as state-of-the-art new power metallers anchored to bottom-end quakewaves. Vocalist Charles Rytkonen was always this band’s signature sound, and increasingly he’s coming into his own, left in anguish under bright lights, sounding like the Jon Oliva of live theatre, leading a crack band through old school crunch rock that evokes new Metallica, old ‘tage and the storytelling spirit of Alice, crossed with Solitude Aeturnus, Memento Mori, and Trouble, if not a little Type O and old Pist-On. But what we’ve really got is a less ragged type of Nevermore, everything slow, everything locked down in production perfection, many haunting mellow passages, ground up by fat guitars. A further step on the pathway of a band that has been quietly purging themselves of prog metal tendencies in search of big low-frequency drama.
(12358 Ventura Blvd. #386 Studio City, CA 91504)