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Possibly the greatest working vocalist within the Power Metal paradigm, Italian maestro Michele Luppi has wasted no time getting back on the horse after receiving the boot from Vision Divine, and mere months after the release of his former band's latest offering we have One of A Kind, the exciting debut from Luppi's new project, the vicious Killing Touch. Man, I'd hate to be Olaf Thorsen right now…

Thankfully, after his wistful excursion with AOR outfit Los Angeles, Luppi has returned to the music that brought his soaring pipes to the public in the first place, revisiting the energetic, high-octane Progressive Power Metal that has shaped his reputation since he was plucked from obscurity to replace Rhapsody god Fabio Lione in the aforementioned Vision Divine (all the more ironic, of course, as he was kicked out of said band to welcome the return of the previously mentioned frontman – go figure). But dissolution aside, what Luppi has created with Killing Touch is pretty much exactly what you'd expect given his background, and fans of his work will certainly be delighted with the state of things on One of A kind, although there are times when I feel like I've heard much of this before.

The sound of the album refreshingly mirrors that of VD's sublime Stream of Consciousness opus, with a high content of catchy, emotionally driven Power Metal anthems that cluster around Luppi's incredible vocal gymnastics with a flurry of swirling keyboards, harmony guitars, and plenty of double kicking, all polished to a sheen with a clear production and quality mixing. Tracks like the infectious "Wheel of Fortune", the sweeping "Falling Away", and the album's stylistic highpoint, the dynamic "Tommy's Cane", are all astonishing portrayals of what the Italian's have done with the genre, but with a number of fillers and endeavors that could have been used as VD b-sides, One of A Kind is a good start, and a welcome return from the talented Mr. Luppi, but not quite the magic artifact a magician like Luppi might have conjured.