Synth EP Review: “The Great Beyond” by Wings of Fire

by Karl Magi

Wings of Fire's “The Great Beyond” is full of longing, love and fragile emotion as it unfolds with tenderness and hurt. I am compelled by the many talented artists on the EP who bring soul and life to the first rate songwriting.

“Take A Star From The Sky” exhales into being with consummate tenderness, its melody full of affectionate feeling while the underlayer bursts with weighty propulsion. MICIA’s voice wraps me in a flowing, airy blanket as it carries a melody that is intensely yearning and filled with absence. I can feel the aching need and lost hope pour from MICIA’s emotively engaging vocals as string-like notes vibrate with effulgent sensation and the piano flickers.

A reverberant bass drum moves with the wordlessly levitating vocals as the percussion drops away. MICIA captures all of the longing within the lyrics while vibrating chimes exude glassy radiance and entrance the listener. Wind sweeps through the track as the chorus moves with bells that shimmer like tiny sapphires in the firmament. The underlayer continues to guide as the piano trembles and bell-like notes dance above the massive bass before silence falls.

“Faking a smile, secrets were filed, regrets were compiled and lost,” as our storyteller is tossed in the night like her letters that floated away with her. She says that she could “take a star from the sky and I could keep it alive,” but it still would not make the song’s subject hers. She goes on to say, “Some stories never end, did I imagine it all again?” and concludes, “I wondered what it was like to be you, some dreams they don’t come true, it makes me feel so blue.”

Planing notes glide with peaceful smoothness as agile drums and bass rebound to start “Another Green Lawn.” Elisa R’s voice is beckoning and full of remembrance and brokenness, carrying a melody tinged with melancholy. The drum beat and colossal bass lock into a propulsive flow while a synth chimes with beautiful brilliance.

Elisa R’s voice echoes with hurt touched by resolution, moving me with its mingled emotions. The gentleness of the melody contrasts with the vibrating strength below and gleaming bells transmit a feeling of loss while the vocals ring out with brokenhearted sensation. A floating synth bends with delicate luminosity while the drum beat continues to add smooth motion. As the soft notes sigh, the track closes in quiet reflection.

The narrator encourages the song’s subject to come with her, saying, “The path was long and the past is gone, maybe I was wrong again.” She asks the other person to pretend that she is their only friend and that they “will be happy till the end.” She guesses that the mystery is gone and that “it’s just another green lawn,” concluding, “Come on, don’t be scared, the world doesn’t care, the waves can carry us away.”

“Somebody To Love” blooms as a solid kick drum moves with Liliia Kysil’s ethereally drifting voice, carrying a heartfelt and wistful melody. The drums rebound to create a firm heartbeat while Liliia Kysil’s voice is as fine as spun glass, capturing sorrowful need with an immediacy that touches me. The chorus floats with utter ache while the underpinnings guide the track and delicate notes ring like ice chimes as tenderness wraps around me.

Liliia Kysil’s voice contrasts with Nicolo Rossini’s guitar as it flies with brilliance above the heavily rebounding underlayer. Tiny notes levitate like raindrops while whispered vocals trail above flickering light in the distance. Echoing openness fills the background as the vocals create heart-wrenching emotion and quickly rippling tones shiver with fragile intensity. Nicolo Rossini’s guitar and heavy drums add propulsion while the voice eddies like cobwebs in a slight breeze and opalescent tones slip past before the song closes.

Our storyteller tries to be herself while also trying to be the song’s subject, but “there was too much in between to see through.” All she wants is someone to love and someone who believes in her, because “so much comes and goes and nobody knows.” She admits that she does not want to be alone again, “in the throes of something deepest,” and simply wants someone to dream about, concluding “so much for the times I wasted waiting for the signs of someone true and kind like you.”

The guitar sings with an exultant yet touching melody as strings gleam and the drum beat brushes gently to start “Midnight Rain.” Jeremy Schroeder’s bittersweet voice carries a melody that trembles with pain while chimes accent his soothing vocals. Alessandro Maffei's guitar holds the main melodic line, gleaming and sobbing with hurting affection as chiming notes flicker like moonlight.

A string-like synth transmits a melody that blends hope with loss as the chorus slips through with a gliding sensation. Crystalline chimes exude reverent light while rounded tones add calm in contrast to the active drums. Alessandro Maffei's lissome guitar moves alongside the vocals as they slide with heartbroken emotion, bringing the song to a quiet and tender close.

“Once upon a memory, I was yours and we were free, farther than the eye could see,” the narrator reflects, saying he would dig his grave rather than let it go. He adds that love is undying, but “the hardest words are on the inside.” He thought this thing was done, yet realizes it is just beginning as he admits, “I thought if I fixed my lie, I could be someone.”

He points out that someone has to feel the midnight rain and that “the summertime has gone to the other side,” capturing a sense of loss, endurance and emotional reckoning as the story unfolds.

“Blood and Soul” opens as a popping drum beat creates motivational energy while the main melody unfolds with breathless hope. Jeremy Schroeder exhales with warmly emotional feeling as the melody brushes forward with tentative affection. A synth evokes summer nights while the vocals entwine with affecting tenderness and slightly muffled notes glimmer like distant lights.

The chorus flows through the music with breezy weightlessness as the vocals stab me in the heart with their emotional tenor. Bright notes shine like fireflies at dusk while Jeremy Schroeder’s vocal performance carries the weight of love. As the song comes to an end, the melody conveys positivity intertwined with hurt.

As our narrator is tossed aside, he collides with the snow and reflects that “you’re not alone in heaven but it’s a long way home.” He finds something he was dreaming of, yet not the song’s subject, admitting that “the blood still keeps me alive, just blood and soul still keep me alive.” In the closing lines, he pleads, “tell me something that nobody knows, show me some place where no one can go,” capturing longing, endurance and fragile hope.