Wonders - Beyond the Mirage

Angry Metal Guy

There’s a good reason why I can’t trust the tags assigned to promos in our overburdened sump pump. Trickery and obfuscation abounds, and it’s those deceitful subversions which landed me some of the most unexpected records in my AMG tenure, including but not limited to the infamous Blut, the charming but deeply flawed Idiot Robot, and the luminous The Vagaband. With my latest acquisition, Italy’s power metal quintet Wonders, I was misled to expect prog. Thankfully, sophomore record Beyond the Mirage is not that, but I’m not sure that what I ended up with is all that much better.

A supergroup of sorts—featuring members of Temperance, Serenity, and Even Flow, among many many others—Wonders play a triumphant, uplifting, adventure-bound sort of heavy/power metal. That means belted cleans, big stadium-crushing choruses, sparkling synths, speedy guitar chugs and noodles, double bass runs out the ass, and ten thousand metric tons of shredded cheddar. With touches of everything from Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Sirenia, and even a fair chunk of Journey influence, Beyond the Mirage exhibits a band with a high tolerance for lactose, and an even higher zeal for fantastical, epic storytelling.

Beyond The Mirage by Wonders

First, the good. Luca Negro (Bass), Giorgio Lunesu (Drums), Pietro Paulo Lunesu (Guitars), and Bob Katsionis (Keyboards) can really play. Across these forty-five minutes, each and every song contains great leads, fun solos, tight rhythms and noodly synths (although those are too far forward in the mix, creating a grating and sometimes even annoying wall of effects). I’d like to be able to hear the bass a lot more because even those bits and pieces that I can parse sound like solid work (“One Million Miles,” “Here I Go Again,” “All My Dreams”). Wonders’ songwriting isn’t too shabby either, with lots of big choruses that leave a lasting impression in my memory, even if many of them sound suspiciously like collages of Journey’s various hits (“Hold Me, Save Me,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Into the Light”) or cuttings from Nightwish’s Wishmaster era (“Coming Home”). Album pacing follows a sensible and effective attack plan as well, dropping speed demons where listeners need a shot of adrenaline (“One Million Miles,” “Coming Home,” “The Time of Your Life”), offering a few proggy twists in the more mid-paced songs to show some depth and range (“Hold Me, Save Me,” “Into the Light”), and filling the remaining gaps with a wide array of different moods and textures to maintain a consistent interest level from start to finish.

Now, the not-so-good. My main sticking point with Beyond the Mirage is vocalist Marco Pastorino’s passionate, enthusiastic, but ultimately uneven and questionable performance. Inconsistent in delivery, he seems to land some notes while flubbing others, finding himself on the flat side of the desired pitch when he does miss. Additionally, there are bizarre moments where he totally nails a powerful falsetto wail but in the same breath overcooks vocal fry at high range (“Here I Go Again”). In a particularly ill-advised move, his tender but off-key crooning on the awful ballad “All My Dreams” serve to expose in the cold light of day the song’s painfully awkward lyrics and his clumsily executed runs in one fell swoop. Even if the vocals weren’t a sore spot, there’s another major issue with this record. At first, I assumed what I heard was simply the result of inadvertently knocking my headphone amp or snagging a cable somewhere, but after some investigation, I realized that many songs on this record include quite a few loud and gritty pops, crunches, and scratches baked into the files themselves (“Here I Go Again,” “In & Out of Time,” “All My Dreams,” “Into the Light”). I’m unsure if these artifacts are the result of poor recording or poor mastering, but they are impossible to ignore and deleteriously impact my experience.¹

Wonders, at the end of the day, has the potential to craft some really fun heavy/power. Beyond the Mirage offers ample evidence of that, nestled in the arena-ready choruses, exuberant lead guitars, and dynamic percussion. Production and vocal woes both require some attention to bring everything in line, at which point Wonders could have a winner on their hands. As it stands, peek Beyond the Mirage at your own risk, and know that you might not love what you find.

Rating: Disappointing.
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Limb Music
Websites: wonders-metal.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/wondersfragment
Releases Worldwide: June 16th, 2023

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