SYMPHONITY – Part 7: I Found My Way Back Home
Track by track introduction!
This song tends to be one of classic Power Metal hymns. Its high tempo and guitar vs. keyboard solo battle will certainly please fans of Stratovarius-like musical style. And hopefully not only them.
As the name suggests, it tells the story about Marco’s journey back from Mongolian empire where he embarked on the ship to his hometown Venice.
You can pre-order the album here.
SYMPHONITY – Part 6: Dreaming Of Home
Track by track introduction!
„Dreaming Of Home“ is beautiful ballad which was already released as a single in May 2020. Strong melodies, beautiful piano lines, epic graduation and artistic guitar solo makes this song one of the best ones on the whole album.
Marco, Nicollo and Matteo Polos served well to Khan Kublai for a long time. As the years went by, they began to think about the return to Venice. They dreamed of returning home.
There will be also a special orchestral version of this song on the CD version of the album.
You can pre-order the album here.
SYMPHONITY – Part 5: Mongols
Track by track introduction!
Magnum Opus of the whole album. Song Mongols is epic 10 minutes long adventure which represents the musical and composer’s peak of the whole story concept. It is also the important part of the story of Marco Polo – after the long journey, he finally reaches the Mongolian empire.
There is an epic beginning performed by Kangling (Tibetian name for a trumpet or horn made of a human thighbone used in Himalayan Buddhism) followed by a deep mighty sound of low brass and stringed instruments.
After the symphonic introduction and typical Mongolian throat singing called Hoomai, there comes the Mongolian cavalry and crush everything under the hooves of their horses which resolves into heavy session of aggressive guitar riffs.
Most probably the heaviest song in the band´s history is driven forward by triplet bass drum cannonade and uncompromising guitar parts which resulted into monumental choral chorus.
Powerful melodic choruses are musical picture of Polo’s expedition whole-heartedly reaching their goal.
In the middle of the song there is an interlude passage where you can hear a lot of traditional instruments, such as Morin-Khuur (or MaTouQin, horse-headed fiddle, it is one of the most representative traditional cello-like Mongolian instrument) but also typical Mongolian men’s and women’s chorals, which are followed by traditional Chinese instruments, such as Daruan (stringed instrument similar to an acoustic bass guitar), Xiao (very long and thin flute with mellow, warm tone), Zhonghu (middle fiddle similar to viola), Guzheng (it is one of the oldest Chinese instrument and its name literally means „ancient harp“) and Pipa (something like Chinese Lute).
At the end of this interlude, there is a solo part on Mongolian MaTouQin and Chinese ErHu which lead into melodic guitar solo and epic chorus. The whole song ends with crushing bass drum triplets and Mongolian horses’ hooves.
„Part 5: Mongols“ appears in two different forms on the album – the full metal and the orchestral version as a CD only bonus track, where we also used a lot of ethnic percussions.
You can pre-order the album here.
SYMPHONITY – Part 4: Love Theme
Track by track introduction!
Love Theme is some sort of interlude. It is a short instrumental song where dominate sweet acoustic guitar and English horn solo supported by Violoncello’s ensemble. Musically, it is a strong contrast to the previous song The Plague and it will evoke a romantic mood in you for a while.
This song is dedicated to the short love affair which Marco experienced according to the legend.
You can pre-order the album here.
SYMPHONITY – Part 3: The Plague
Track by track introduction!
The Plague is another powerful speedy hymn with strong melody line in chorus. It begins with the mighty sound of Armenian Duduk (ancient Armenian wood instrument) and it is one of the fastest songs on the album.
Except of the swift guitar solo, you can hear the solo part on another special instrument – Turkish violin. The whole song is very heavy, probably much heavier than most of other Symphonity’s songs. It relates to plague which whole expedition experienced in the town of Hormuz.
You can pre-order the album here.
SYMPHONITY – Part 2: Crimson Silk
As we know from the history, Marco’s father Nicollo travelled to the Mongolian empire and back when Marco grew up in Venice. After his return home, he needed to make second journey back to Mongolia, because he promised to deliver a message back to Khan Kublai. For this second time, Marco was the part of the expedition. Their first steps led to Acre and Jerusalem and then further east through the war-torn land of Armenia and Persia. That’s exactly what the song Crimson Silk is all about.
Musically, it is a swift power metal of European provenience spiced with elements of Middle Eastern music. We used a lot of ethnic instruments, especially in verses. As an example, you can hear the instrument called Oud (short-necked fretless lute used in Turkish in Arabic music and one of the main melodic instruments in the Middle East), Saz (long-necked fretted lute), Middle East Kanun (a Turkish zither) or Ney (long end-blown flute).
We use also special percussive sounds (most of them were recorded live by our special guest Ladislav Šiška), such as darbuka (small goblet drum), dohola (large goblet drum similar to darbuka but with deeper tones because of its larger size) or Riq (small tambourine-like frame drum with jingles).
You can pre-order the album here.
SYMPHONITY – Part 1: Venezia
The whole album starts with the song Venezia (Venice) where Marco was born and spent his childhood. It is a sort of epic instrumental intro song, which starts calmly but graduates with spectacular mezzo-soprano melody which make you goosebumps. As you will listen to this melody, try to imagine young Marco who dreams about travelling to distant places. For many years of his childhood, he waited desperately for his father’s return from the long journey.
The vocal part is performed by great Czech Mezzosoprano Jana Hrochová, the solo opera voice of National Theatre in Brno. We are more than pleased of her appearance on our album. Thank you very much!
You can pre-order the album here.
SYMPHONITY track by track introduction
„Marco Polo: The Metal Soundtrack“ is the conceptual album which tells the story of Marco Polo. Each song is dedicated to some specific part of his journey. We tried to create a musical connection with the whole story, so each song is like a chapter of his life which is described not just by lyrics but also by music which is different in each of the songs. With the help of music and by using uncommon ethnic instruments, we created a special atmosphere which relates to each chapter, so it enhances the listening experience.
That’s why we decided to describe you each chapter in our own words, so you will know all the important things before the listening. In the following days we will share with you the series of posts related to each particular song from our upcoming album „Marco Polo: The Metal Soundtrack“, which you can pre-order here.
Release date: June 2, 2023
Release date: May 12, 2023