No biography came with this CD. Too bad for them. Shining Fury sounds and looks Italian, so we’ll work with that pretend-knowledge. They make melodic power metal. The album Last Sunrise starts off with an annoying intro: kids singing with some synthesiser sounds setting in in the background. ‘Oh, well, intro’s have a suck-tendency of 60 percent: I won’t crucify them yet’, I’m thinking. Then the first song starts. ‘Standard’ and ‘mediocre’ are the first words that pop into my head. The lyrics sound corny and obvious, and I am sincerely hoping this will change from the second song on. My hope is betrayed. Although instrumentally they cut it, the music doesn’t do anything to me. The abominable lyrics don’t help and then they take an even bigger turn for the worse in ‘060501’, ‘Sleepin’ Coma’ and ‘Snake’s Game’. I mean: ,,Nobody comes to help me…you are my worst nightmare”… Alrighty then! That about does it for me. I am just about to give up on this CD when I hear song six.

‘Last Sunrise’ has a nice intro, speedy guitarplay and drums, and is actually quite catchy. Too bad the second verse is so abundantly melodic with lyrics to match this goose amongst ducks: ,,I am the lord of this war(d), ‘cause I have justice on my side??”. if they hadn’t put that part in, this song would deserve a 7.7 and be worth listening to in the future, now it is just a 6.

9.

The prelude of song seven actually amused me. The ballad that follows, is one of the better songs on Last Sunrise, instrumentally speaking. Very beautiful and inventive solo’s are backed by nice keyboard sounds.

‘Declaration of a cheat’ starts off as if it were a Stuck Mojo-song. Being a big Stuck Mojo fan I liked the feature. There’s even grunt in this song. However the power the song could’ve had is once again obliterated by the overdone keyboard sound effects.

Song ten and eleven do largely the same as the first nine, thus the time has come to sum it all up. Overly smooth production mixed with average riffing, excruciating synthesiser sounds, the aforementioned lack of depth in lyrics and the vocals themselves, sung with a voice that is forceless and kind of annoying, make this album one to avoid on and at all costs. At certain points there are some good guitar parts, but unluckily, these parts are jacked up by over the top synthesising. I think even die-hard power metal-fans won’t want to sit through this. However, if you are willing to pay big bucks for one good ballad and masochistic enough to enjoy a certain degree of agony through most of the songs, this is your thing.

PS, after some inquiries it turns out I am actually right about their Italian descent, how cool is that