Italian veterans Deathless Legacy certainly know a thing or two about putting together an album full of what I like to call ‘kitchen sink’ metal; That is, the concept of never having too much of a good thing. They take all the bits they like from the last forty years of hard rock and heavy metal, whack it in the blender… and release the subsequent results, for good or bad.

By which I mean, they don’t really have a self-editing function; great ideas co-exist with the not-so-great or the just plain ill-advised (the Type O Negative-styled keys that pepper Nightfall, for instance), meaning that often times you as a listener are left ruminating on what might have been rather than celebrating what actually is…

That said, when the band get things right, they do so in spectacular fashion. Everyone stars at some point over the course of the record’s eleven tracks, but the wellspring of greatness here is undoubtedly hugely talented vocalist Steva; Blessed with a smoky, sensuous set of pipes, she lifts even the most mundane material out of the ordinary, and turns the best the band has to offer into titanic slabs of world-beating grandeur. Her vocal on Hollow, for instance, is absolutely spine tingling, but as a performance this is the norm for Steva rather than an exception, and I for one could listen to her all day without ever getting bored.

Sgt. Bones (guitars) and keyboard maestro Alex Van Eden add high quality support and augment the sound with top notch playing – Bones’ solo on The Coven is quite superb, for instance, whilst Van Eden’s parping instrumentation at the start of Absolution brings new meaning to the phrase ‘over the top’ – whilst rhythm section Frater Orion (drums) and Deadwood Nick (bass) never content themselves with merely providing a rhythm; rather, they insert themselves into songs skilfully as required, and the effect of all four instrumentalists in tandem on tracks like the album’s closing title track really adds to that ‘kitchen sink’ feel.

At their best, on pounding power/symphonic rockers like Fade Into The Dark, Deathless Legacy strongly suggest that they deserve a place at Euro metal’s top table; If only they could occasionally consult the ‘less is more’ manual and streamline their sound just a little… That would really be something to behold!

Mater Larvarum is out now.