Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Future is Tomorrow - The New Messiah - 2005 - Independent

Track Listing1. The New Messiah 2. The Man Who Believes in Nothing 3. In Memory 4. The Sacred Son 5. The Nameless One 6. No One Cares

Future is Tomorrow have sprung out of nowhere and are preparing to take the Italian prog-power scene by storm. With their new EP, “The New Messiah,” they draw some obvious influences from established formulas, but also manage to experiment with some new ideas, giving them a refreshingly innovative sound. This five-piece consists of Max on vocals, axe men Pablic and Gadjet, bassist Field, and Grave on drums. Together they’ve put together a technically solid EP that gives off very strong waves of potential. They also throw out a few twists here and there, which further captivate the listener’s interest.

The title track, “The New Messiah,” is unfortunately the weakest on the album. Pablic and Gadjet do a great job (as they do on every song) but the vocals are sort of… weird. That’s really the only word to describe them. Half the time Max is singing properly, with his powerful, operatic voice. Sometimes, however, he breaks off into these strange lines of almost spoken, drawn out vocal parts, which don’t really fit too well with the music. Max – you’ve got a great voice – use it all the time, not just most of the time! Thankfully, the song ends with some awesome dual solo action and makes up for the strangeness. “The New Messiah” is followed by “The Man Who Believes in Nothing,” which is crunchy, heavier sounding tune. Max sounds a lot better here, utilizing the full range of his voice. The only downside here is the backing vocals – Gadjet and Pablic do them and sound a bit out of synch with each other and with Max in a few places. This does not, however, take away from the song’s brilliance – again we’re graced with some cool guitar solos and even a short bass solo where Field gets a rare chance to show off his skills.

The second third of the album is by far the best. “In Memory” starts out with a high-pitched wail from Max – something that I just love. His voice has become, in a short period of time, one of my favorites in the genre because of his ability to hit high notes and at the same time retain the unique identity of his voice, something that not a lot of singers can do. I just wish he would do it more (Hint to Max if you’re reading this)!! The song continues with some solid sections and a really nice slower part in the middle. This provides a really nice change of pace – and it’s followed by more high vocals from Max, which should make everyone happy. Up next is my favorite track of the album – “The Sacred Son.” The opening guitar riffs are some of the most creative I’ve heard in a while – FiT have a unique way of structuring their riffs around each other that makes them easy to pick out from a pack of otherwise similar-sounding bands. This is a great thing to be able to claim in a genre where a lot of the bands sound way too similar to one another. In addition, the other great thing about this song is that all the pieces seem to fall effortlessly together – the drums, bass, and vocals melt smoothly together with the riffs. Combined together, these elements create the best song on the CD!

At the beginning of “The Nameless One” is something really unexpected – an acoustic Spanish-sounding riff which sounds like its come straight out of a bullfighting move or something. The song trudges on afterwards in normal fashion, but in the background manages to retain a certain Spanish groove, and the same riff pops up again here and there throughout the song. This is probably the last thing anyone expects to hear on an album like this – but it’s quite a pleasant surprise. In addition, during the chorus of the song, the lead and backing vocals sound much more harmonized and in key than in previous songs. “No One Cares” finishes off this six-song EP in solid fashion. Max reverts a bit back to his drawn-out style in a few places, but he sounds a lot more aggressive and forceful here, and it manages to come off not sounding half bad. Sure, I miss the high stuff in those spots, but at least it doesn’t detract from the song.

Future is Tomorrow have a TON of potential to be a successful and popular band within the metal world. With this short release they are showing off the facts that they have two skilled, creative guitarists, a vocalist with a powerful voice (when he puts it to use!) with a solid bassist and drummer behind them. I would imagine that the amount of innovation shown on “The New Messiah” would be doubled or even tripled on a full-length release, because these boys sure have got the talent. Anyone who is a fan of shredding solos, operatic clean vocals, or even just GOOD HEAVY METAL should investigate Future is Tomorrow. Then, in five or six years, you can say you listened to them back before everybody knew them!


--Veritas 09.20.05