Skylark - Dragon's Secrets (1997)

When I listened to Italian band Skylark's debut album THE HORIZON AND THE STORM, I stated that it was promising, but messed up badly by Fabio Dozzo's dreadful vocals. Well, he's still here on this follow up and, somehow, he sounds better. Still not great, but there's certainly some improvement. And that goes for the material as well. Likewise, it's nothing wonderful, but holds the attention as it speaks of battles with dragons and trolls and suchlikes. Is this power metal or what?
It also has a pleasing area of instrumentation, featuring violins, cellos, violas, flutes and even a bassoon. And, according to the credits, those are genuine instruments, not programmed into a keyboard, as at least one person has accused them of doing on the Rate Your Music website. If I turn out to be wrong, ah well.
Skylark remain one of the first bands to really get into genuine fantasy topics to this degree and, while there's still a lot of room for improvement, this record is worth checking out.

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