The Last Gate is the third in a fantasy trilogy that has sold well throughout the world. A fourth installment, a live performance called Live Gate has been released as a DVD and has seen positive response worldwide. The Devine Gates Trilogy, as it’s called, is something of a fantasy opera with various voices singing different parts of the story. The main voice is, of course, the beautiful blond Italian songstress Kiara. And she doesn’t do opera. This is classical metal with a strong female vox carrying most of the load. The other members of the core sound are band founder Eddy Antonini on piano, keys and harpsichord, Roberto "Brodo" Potenti on 6 Strings Bass, Rhythm and Lead Guitar and Fabrizio "Pota" Romani on Lead and Solo Guitars. Drums on this production are contributed by Alejandro Vasquez Cortez and several other guest musicians contribute on both instrumental and vocal components. But, it is the vocal of the lovely blond Italian front woman that drives the show.

It’s hard to differentiate the Skylark music from the story line. After all, the music is the story, even if it is in a beautiful format. The Last Gate continues a story that began some time ago, it is a fantasy tale told over a metal framework. It is told with the voices of several characters, with an interaction that serves to describe the direction of the tale. You can take it on that level, or, you can just listen to the music, and enjoy it for what it is. For those interested in the story, it helps to start at the beginning, at the earlier works that describe this journey. That means listen to the earlier productions, and follow through to the present as described in this CD. But, in all reality, that’s not really necessary, this music tends to stand by itself.

However, for those who want to consider the message, it’s not impractical to look at what’s going on. The Last Gate starts with an interaction between the Captain of the Warriors and the Princess of the Snow:

I trust you know who the Princess of the Snow is. Anyway, the music continues with the development of the tale from this point. And the music is really nice. There is a symphonic development that introduces the second title, The Scream, which takes us to the metal that drives the Skylark sound. That metal takes us to the vocals of the Princess, aka Kiara, and this is the driving motif of the Skylark sound. It’s solid metal that drives the music over a strong female metal vox.

Skylark is nothing if not strong metal, the keyboards have a position that serves as a basis but it is the guitars and the drums that serve to take us into the message as delivered by a group of vocal talents. First among those, of course is the female vox of Kiara. However, there are several voices that attend to the various characters in the Skylark fantasy. They take us through the journey, they describe the interactions between the characters, but, in the final analysis, they sing some strong metal that makes the story all the more enjoyable.

Several of the songs on this title could be described as hard metal, others could be described as ballads. In this reviewer’s opinion, the strongest are those titles that focus on the talents of the blond songstress. She is clearly the focus of the Skylark sound, and she is clearly the deliverer of the fantasy that serves to guide this work.

The Third Gate moves in several directions beyond the direct story line. The band speaks to issues that correlate to the general story line, but that have a distinct message that speaks to the more psychological implications of that story line. In Believe in Love, the Princess suggests:

You can easily dismiss the Skylark music as just another fantasy trip, one that contemporary society seems to be enthralled with these days. After all, we have a world that actually believed for years that Weapons of Mass Destruction could be found in Iraq. But fantasy can’t be that easily dismissed. A cursory look at the computer game industry tells us that. But, in this case, the fantasy tale is encompassed in some wonderful music. The Last Gate has captured a large part of the world that doesn’t understand a word of the lyrics but that loves the music for what it is. We in the West have the added benefit of actually understanding what is being discussed. And that, in addition to the strong metal driving the outstanding vocals, is reason enough to give the Third Gate a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

9 / 10