Change Direction

DGM has been around a couple of years, to my knowledge, and are another band who's homeland is Italy. They have plenty of tough competition, Labyrinth, Rhapsody, Skylark and a host of Italian others.

Their vocalist is probably the most noticeable feature about the band. He sounds like a unique blend of Timo Kotipelto (Stratovarius) and Keith Sudano (Eternity-X). Throw in a few shades of ex-MSG vocalist, Gary Barden, at times. At times on the album, his vocals are passable, nothing outstanding, but they get the job done, even though they sound a bit 'thin'. Other times, his delivery is just laughable, and you keep hoping he'll shut up. Gutiarist Diego Reali, comes from the same school as Timo Tolkki, Michael Romeo, and of course the father of neo classical guitar playing, Yngwie Malmsteen. He shreds and does all the over-the-top fretboard shredding stuff. I won't bother to go into what the music sounds like, for if you read on to the next paragraph you will get a very good idea. Let's just say...Symphony X, Stratovarius, Leviathan and Yngwie Malmsteen. But not always taking the best of the elements they are so influenced by.

Some cds are just great overall, but then there are the few that tuck away one really spectacular song, and leave the rest being average. This album is one of those, with a superb little tune, and the rest of the disc falling into averageness. The hidden gem for this almost unknown cd, is a hard rocker of a tune, called "In My Heart". It is a perfect blend of Stratovarius and Yngwie Malmsteen. The singer, Luciano Regoli sounds very simiilar to Timo Kotipelto on this track. The exchange of acoustic guitar and electric, for the blistering solo is dead-on Yngwie Malmsteen. The riffs leading back into the chorus of the song, remind me alot of the outstanding catchy guitar stuff from Yngwie's 1985 classic, "I'll See the Light Tonight". A catchy tune, that truly does take a shape that is the best of both of the worlds it is influenced by. A real stinger of a track. If you pay close attention to the ending, you can hear a little clip from the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven". I still haven't figured out how that is revelant to the song, perhaps they are just Robert Plant fans. If the rest of the album was as good as this one track, DGM would become as much of a 'big name', as Stratovarius and Symphony X, the two bands that they happen to borrow the most from.

The rest of the songs wander around too much for my tastes, much like other more progressive oriented bands like Leviathan. My attention span is simply too short to want to listen to obvious talent just show-off without much songstructure to hold it together. The song "Do What You Want" is one of the 'other' highlights, and reminds me alot of a Michael Schenker song, only with keyboards taking the spotlight instead of the guitar. The vocalist, Luciano Regoli, pulls off a performance that reminds me heavily of Schenker vocalists, Phil Mogg and Gary Barden. "Anthem" is a long and drawn out, well, anthem I guess. Bass heavy near the beginning, it shapes up to something resembling repetitive prog metal. The vocal delivery is almost laughable, its pretty bad, and the guy sounds alot like Klaus Miene from Scorpions for some reason. He 'talks' through most everything but the chorus, and that set to pounding Dream Theater drums is a pretty sad sight indeed. There is this really funky section in the middle that has birds twittering, a rooster crowing and some heavy duty flute playing. Then it kicks into full Dream Theater mode. "Lonely Nights" is a disgustingly long progressive ballad, with more keyboards than you can poke a stick at. "Brainstorming" owes alot to Symphony X. Its a heavier tune, with a guitar/keyboard solo that is frighteningly similiar to SyX material, with the keyboard/guitar exchange in the middle there. "Change Direction" is surprisingly crunchy at first, and musically steals a good bit from Symphony X again, especially in pacing of the song, and the overall sound of it. The vocal delivery leaves a little to be desired. "The Last Memory" is a pretty much average Stratovarius rip-off. More of that Klaus Miene slant on the vocals that switches between being decent, to basically sad sounding, and I don't mean that in a good way. The keyboards create a moody, almost gothic kind of atmosphere in moments, but they took that which was good, and screwed with it. "Flying Fantasy" is a wild instrumental journey, that is straight from the book of Yngwie Malmsteen and other shredders. The keyboards remind me heavily of Stratovarius, and there is plenty of them. Guitar sound is very crisp and clean and a great compliment to the jingly jangle keyboards. The frantic, straightforward pace of the song gives a slight feeling of flying, which is what I assume is what they were aiming for. About halfway through the song, there is one little part that reminds me of music from a video game of all things, Metroid for the old NES. Near the end of the song, it slows down quite a bit before speeding up a tad to bring this musical flight in to a smooth landing.