Friday 31 January 2020

East Of Eden - Kalipse (1997)


The ninth album from this British band.

The band is a trio with a lineup of flute, drum programming, violin, saxophones, guitars and guitar synths.
A guest musician helps out on bass.

This band started out very promising as an avant-garde band. Their first two albums had avant-garde so dense that it was almost impossible to review. Those two albums are their best albums and the two albums this band is known for.

The band then took us to folk rock and Americana. Those albums are best forgotten.

Kalipse sees the band takes another sharp left turn. That to an area they have never ever visited before.

That means fusion with a lot of gypsy music influences.

There is also some strong jazz elements here and it is obvious that the music of Jean Luc Ponty has left it's marks on this incantation of East Of Eden.

The music is pretty nice and cosy. I am am comfortable in the company of this album.

There is not much good music here and it is sorely lacking in quality, this fifty-five minutes long album. It is a decent album and just that.

2 points


Strange Land - Galactic Drift: Impact Event Part Two (2018)


The sixth album from this US band.

The band is a duo with a female vocalist backed up by one guy who does the guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and some background vocals.

To say that I disliked their fifth album, Part One in this series, is an understatement. It is a true turkey.

They still soldiers on and their sixth album gives us the same genre.

That is US neo-prog.

There is also some symphonic prog and a lot of metal here too. Some of the metal is very harsh and dissonant.

The music is a lot better this time around and there are even some sporadic hints of good music here. Not many, but enough to make me believe this band is nowhere near hopeless.

This fifty minutes long album is a decent enough album and perhaps worth checking out.

2 points

Wednesday 22 January 2020

Villagers of Ioannina City - Age of Aquarius (2020)


The second album from this band from Greece.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, Greek flutes, bass, drums and vocals.

It is fair to say that this albums was one of the revelations of last year. A lot of people fell in love with this album.

Greece has not had many great bands lately. But this band is seriously breaking now and will become one great band.

Their music is based on stone rock. The Greek whistles and flutes breaks up the cascades of harsh guitars and gives the sound an ancient Greek feeling.

There is even a couple of folk rock and rock tunes. Songs with male and female vocals which feels a bit out of tune with the rest of the album and does not improve the quality here.

The stoner rock is not very hard. But it has some space rock edges and the good vocals adds to that.

There are some great pieces here and a couple of pieces who falls a bit flat on the face.

This album is one hour long and five minutes. And it is a very good album well worth checking out.
This band is now on my radar.

3.5 points


 


Tuesday 21 January 2020

Lótus Áurea - Fragmentos (2019)


The second album from this Brazilian band.

The band is a quartet on this album with a lineup of bass, keyboards, drums, guitars and vocals.

I was not very impressed by their 2018 debut album Principia. A bit of a messy album which were influenced by everything.

The band continues down the same path again with their new album. It is again a Name Your Price album on Bandcamp.

Their music is a mix of Brazilian pop, folk rock, psych rock and eclectic prog. There is some King Crimson here and a lot of weird psych prog.

The vocals is by intent pretty atonal at times. Most of the vocals is pretty average and that is not by intent.

Dissonance is a big factor in their music and the tones are turned upside down and pulled apart.

The music is pretty melodic though.... but not particular good.

This is another decent to good album from this band and a sure download for those who like eclectic prog.

2.5 points






Monday 20 January 2020

If - Double Diamond (1973)


The sixth album from this British band.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of guitars, bass, synths, piano, organ, woodwinds, percussion, drums and vocals.

This band has been our country's answer to Blood, Sweat & Tears for many years.

The difference though is that If did British rock with woodwinds. There is not much elegance here.

There is a great deal of pub rock in their music. Add a lot of blues too and you get the picture.

The flute and the saxophones adds some more class to the music. Ditto for the organ.

The guitars and the vocals are pretty raw and aggressive.

This forty minutes worth of music has some very decent music. There is no real good music here though and that is my only gripe with this album.

This is an OK album and well worth some attention.

2 points



Sunday 19 January 2020

Subliminal - Limbo Experiment (2008)


The one and only album from this band from Argentina.

The band is a trio with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, drums and vocals.

This trio is also members of the symphonic prog band Nexus from the same country. Subliminal is a side project where they recorded and released ideas not suitable for Nexus.

The music on this almost one hour long album is still symphonic prog. It is also very much Latin symphonic prog too.

There is a lot of ELP references here. But the music on Limbo Experiment is not bombastic and does not come from classical music. The music here is much more lyrical and understated.

It also has some tango feel and it is very much rooted in the 1970s symphonic prog scene in Argentina.

The music is at times nicely laid-back with some suitable understated vocals on the top of the music. Latin symphonic prog is romantic indeed.

It still has a lot of substance and interesting details. Something this album more than proves.

This is indeed a good album which does not shame this scene at all.

3 points

Os Mutantes - Rita Lee: Hoje É O Primeiro Dia Do Resto Da Sua Vida (1972)


The sixth album from this Brazilian band.

The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of bass, drums, guitars, electric piano, synth, piano and vocals.

This album is not really a Os Mutantes album. The music was written by them and they does the recording. That is all... 

The album is really a solo album from Rita Lee. Her first... or maybe not. She had a good solo career and has sold over 60 million albums worldwide. She is a national treasure and this Wikipedia article tells the full story. I am impressed !!

The music here does not sound like a vocalist supported by a hired band. Rita Lee is by no means dominating this album more than she has done on the first five Os Mutantes albums.

The opening song is Rita Lee in the forefront, though.... The rest is Os Mutantes.

The music is a mad mix of folk rock, pop and psych rock in the Brazilian vein. Tropico in other words.

There is some mad music here. Quality wise, this is a decent to good album.  

The album very much feels like the band's last hooray with Rita Lee before they went their separate ways. Os Mutantes changed their style and Rita Lee recorded albums with other people.

2.5 points






Saturday 18 January 2020

Prometheo - D'un Fuoco Rapito, Di Un Giovane Uomo, D'un Amore Insensato (2019)


The debut album from this Italian band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of organ, piano, synths, guitars, bass, drums and vocals.

I have no idea where this band comes from in Italy or anything about this band whatsoever. This album dumped into my inbox and as an RPI fan, I jumped on the album in excitement.

The album title is massive long and I am not sure what it means.

The music is RPI, indeed.

That means RPI in the good old style with a lot of folk rock influences. There are indeed a lot of Angelo Branduardi influences on this album.

The music is pastoral after the first minutes where we get treated to some distorted rock. That is an majestic well over the top intro to the rest of the album and a false one. It is good music though as the band really stretches their legs here.

That cannot be said about the rest of the album where the music is there to support the vocals.

This is a good album though and one debut album which I hope the band can build on. Check out this album.

3 points


Friday 17 January 2020

AlphaJorge - Storm Ahead (2019)


The debut album from this band from Brazil.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, guitars, bass, flutes, keyboards and vocals.
A quartet of guest musicians contributed with saxophone, vibraphone, piano and vocals.

This band is another example of how popular melodic prog still is in South America. New bands like AlphaJorge takes over from the old bands.

Well, that is the hope I have for this band.

The music on this album is neo-prog with some fusion and prog metal influences. Crossover prog as it is called.

There is a lot of guitars here. Both guitar harmonies, riffs and long solos. That and the more psych rock influences gives this band and album a lot of Pink Floyd influences.

There are also some edgy progressive metal stuff here.

The album covers a lot of ground and you can hear that this is a debut album.

It is an acceptable debut album. The music is somewhere between decent and good. It gives this band something to improve on and I hope they will.

2.5 points





Thursday 16 January 2020

Stratus Luna - Stratus Luna (2019)


The debut album from this band from Brazil.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, steel guitars, bass, drums, sitar, keyboards, flutes and percussion.

This band exploded into the scene at the beginning of last year and was and still is very much championed by the MoonJune Records ovner Leonardo. Something I totally understand. The band is still an indie band on Bandcamp.

Their music is a mix of symphonic prog and fusion. Camel meets up with the fusion scene.

This fusion of fusion and symphonic prog is a pretty exciting sub genre of both genres and offers up some very good musicians.

Stratus Luna can be included here and it can be argued that they are among the leading lights in this genre... already.

The music is dynamic and technical. There are some good Camel like melodies here too on this almost fifty minutes long album.

This is not overly exciting this album and neither does it has some great melodies and pieces. It is nevertheless a good album and a more than welcome debut album and addition to the scene. I hope to hear more from this band in the future.

3 points


Tuesday 14 January 2020

Jade Warrior - Jade Warrior (1971)


The debut album from this British band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of flute, percussion, bass, guitars and vocals.

I have always wanted to explore this band, but have not had the chance before I started to listen to this album one week ago. I intend to review most of their albums this winter and spring.

Their music being totally new to me, even I did not expect what the speakers told me. And it took some more listening sessions than usual before I got my bearings enough to write this review.

The music is very much minimalistic. It has a tribal flute and drumming/percussion element who dominates large parts of this album.

There are some guitars and vocals too and they too take up a large chunk of this album. 

I cannot remember I have ever heard anything like this before and I have been told it is not typical for this band..... after their first three albums.

I still like what I hear. There is some decent to good song on this album. The vocals are really good and the guitars distorted and in contrast to the tribal elements.

The result is a decent to good album and a band I regard as a very welcome addition to my blog and universe. This is what my blog and intellectual curiosity is all about.

2.5 points




Tetragon - Nature (1971)


The debut album from this German band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, clavinet, organs, piano, electric piano and vocals.

This band evolved out of the band Trikolon whose album I have reviewed earlier this year in this blog.

This album, Nature, opens up with a track very much in the Trace and ELP vein. Pretty much classical music.

It then takes a sharp left turn and moves into a much more rocking landscape. The guitar solos is long and wild. Very intense too.

The music is now jazz improvisations and the band follows a much more rocking and jazzy style to the end of the album. The music is full of organs and even the organs sounds a bit improvised.

The music is pretty wild and hard.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good throughout this album. Well, good I would say.

This is an album well worth checking out and another hidden gem.

3 points


Sunday 12 January 2020

Still Life - Still Life (1971)


The one and only album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, guitars, organs, bass and vocals.

Nothing is known about this band. This album has been re-released and probably bootlegged numerous times and is not too difficult to find.

The music on this forty odd minutes long album is a mix of psych rock and hard rock. There are some blues here too.

Good references are Arthur Browne's Kingdom Come and Deep Purple.

The Hammond organ sound is pretty good and the vocals are acceptable. Ditto for the other instruments. But the Hammond organ is the big plus on this album.

The music is not bad at all and is in the classic British heavy prog tradition.

The quality of the songs are a let down and probably tells the story why this band never made it.

Nevertheless, this is a decent album and not one to be frightened off.

2 points




Blå Lotus - Högtid (2019)


The second album from this Swedish band.

The band was trio on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, percussion, theremin, fx, hammond, farfisa, synths, electric piano, flute and vocals.

I really liked their 2018 debut album Tube Alloys a lot and were looking forward to this album. See my review here.

The band is again giving us fifty minutes of music.

That is a mix of folk rock, funk, acid rock and heavy progressive rock.

References are both Jethro Tull and Deep Purple. But there is also some references to the Swedish symphonic prog scene here. Not to mention: Swedish folk rock.

This album has indeed a great Swedish feel and ambience. 

The music is at time pretty heavy and it makes a lot of noise. Enough to make sensitive souls flee the room. This band really rocks off at times.

There is also some more pastoral pieces here on this album.

The end result is a good album which really heats up a cold room. I really like this band and their music. They are some great talents.

3 points


Saturday 11 January 2020

Chicago - Chicago 16 (1982)


The 13th album from this US band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of woodwinds, bass, keyboards, guitars, drums and vocals.
The band had got support from six other musicians who provided guitars, synths, keyboards and programming.

This is the socalled famous Chicago album who re-established the band again after some commercial flops and the loss of their record contract. The band was down and out....

The producer David Foster hired in most of Toto to help out the band and adopted a very commercial style. A style compared to Asia with woodwinds.

That is a good reference indeed. The songs are short, punchy and very punchy in the 1980s sound and style.

It reeks the 1980s of this album. An album that saved the band.

Anno 2020, this album is not too bad. OK, Peter Cetera's vocals is an acquired taste. The music is bashful commercial. Most of the stuff here is decent though and well worth a listen if 1980s and woodwinds is your style. Toto fans should also check out this album.

It is indeed a decent album.

2 points


We Are Kin - Bruised Sky (2019)


The third album from this British band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of synths, bass, drums, piano and female vocals.

I have never heard about this band before this album dumped into my inbox some time ago.

A new band, a new soundscape. This time totally without any guitars. The synths and pianos slots in behind the vocals. And they do that nicely. There is no need for guitars here.

Emma Brewin-Caddy does a very good job on the vocals and is dominating this album.

The music is pretty much minimalism progressive rock. There is some electronica here in this folk rock based take on progressive rock.

The music sounds fresh, although a bit too reliant on the vocals.

There is a lot of vocals but not so much space for the instrumentalists to shine.

The songs here are not particular good. They are fairly decent and elevated by the vocals to something better than they are.

There are only so much you can do with faltering songs and this album falls a bit short, I am afraid.

2.5 points


Hammill. Peter - The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage (1974)


The third album by this British artist.

Peter Hammill did the harmonium, mellotron, fx, piano, guitars and vocals himself on this album.
He had help from the rest of Van Der Graaf Generator plus Randy California who provided guitars, drums, organ, woodwinds, drums, percussion and backing vocals.

Peter Hammill had and have a parallel career as a solo career in addition to being the main man in Van Der Graaf Generator.

That system works as Peter Hammill's own songs are pretty stripped down into a singer-songwriter format and VDGG is a full band with full orchestration.

As a VDGG fan and admirer, it is natural that I am drawn to his solo albums and want to review as many of them as possible.

The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage is more a band effort than a singer-songwriter album. It is a halfway house between a solo album and a VDGG album.

It has all the darkness and gloomy views as you will expect from a VDGG album..... and a Peter Hammill album.. from what I understand.

It is indeed a dark album with a lot of very good themes and songs. It is an album that has hypnotic powers.

In short, this is a good album and one to really check out.

3.5 points


Friday 10 January 2020

Strange Land - Figuration Of Hope: Impact Event Part One (2017)


The fifth album from this US band.

The band is a duo with a lineup of programming, guitar, bass and vocals. Both male and female vocals.

This is a duo of Brittney Schultz and Sean Gill. Sean Gill is doing the computers and the instruments.

I have never ever heard about this band before their two last albums dumped into my inbox some time ago.

Sean Gill has also been the only member throughout their six albums. They were a trio before Brittney joined Sean in the band.

The music is some form for progressive metal..... of some sort. The music is a mix of djent and more melodic progressive metal.

This is supposed to be part one of the two parts Impact Even duo of albums. It is concept albums.

I have no idea what the band has done on their first four albums. I doubt is has been anything worse than this album. The songs sounds of tune and even the djent parts here inbetween the melodic parts sounds out of tune. The sound is a bit weird and I do not think that is by intent.

There is not really anything here can say is decent or even good. This is another turkey for my exclusive collection of turkeys.

1 point




Thursday 9 January 2020

Rumpelstiltskin - Black Magician (1972)


The second and final album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, guitars and vocals.

This band is an obscure band and barely a footnote in the history of British hard rock/blues.....which is a shame when it comes to their debut album, at least.

The band tried to break USA around the time when this album saw the light of day.

The result is an album with a mix of southern rock, blues, soul and country.

The music here is much softer than on the hard rocking debut album. It is also much more calculating.

These forty minutes gives us some good musicianship and vocals.

The songs are hardly decent at all. The songs here are pretty substandard to tell the truth and this album is not worth purchasing at all.

The album to have from this band is the debut album. This album though is a turkey.

1 point



Wednesday 8 January 2020

Hawkwind - Road To Utopia (2018)


The 30th studio album from this British band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, viola, percussion, keyboards, harmonica, synths and vocals.
Guest musicians, including Eric Clapton on one song, provided guitars, piano, strings and woodwinds.

I am not sure if this is a real Hawkwind studio album. Nevertheless, I like the artwork and this album merits an inclusion here as most Hawkwind studio discos includes this album.

The music on this album is a bit mirrored in the art-work of this album. See above.

A green, nice and non-aggressive versions of Hawkwind is what we get here. All the edges has gone.

That is hard job, removing the edges of their music. But that job has been done and the result is this album. It is like cricket on a warm day.

Dull is a word that springs to mind here. There is strings and woodwinds here over some rather dour acid rock music.

There are some decent details and melodies here so this is not a disaster of an album. It is though an album not really worth purchasing as it does not fit the Hawkwind label and name.

1.5 points

Tuesday 7 January 2020

Sylvan. Nad - The Regal Bastard (2019)


The sixth album from this US artist.

Nad Sylvan did keyboards, guitars and the vocals on this album.
He had help from an all-stars list of musicians who provided guitars, bass, drums, viola, violin, cello, keyboards and vocals.

Nad Sylvan has a long career. He started out in the late 1970s but did not make an impact before 20 years later and his cooperations with Roine Stolt. He is now the vocalist for Steve Hackett.

His solo albums has been a mixed baggage. The last three albums has been the ones that has been real prog rock.

The previous two albums broke Nad Sylvan in the prog rock scene and made him a popular recording artist in addition to a popular vocalist for Steve Hackett, Unifaun and The Agent Of Mercy. 

His vocals is pretty melodic and muscular at the same time. He is one of the better vocalists in the scene indeed.

The music on this album is a mix of neo-prog and symphonic prog. There is also some very obvious inspirations from the Scandinavian symphonic prog scene on this album.

The music flows nicely throughout this one hour in his company. I have enjoyed these listening sessions. There is no real great songs here and the album is a bit short on interesting details.

This is a good album from a great singer and that is it, really.

3 points


Monday 6 January 2020

Stelle di Mario Schifano. Le - Dedicato a... (1967)


The one and only album from this Italian band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, keyboards, bass, guitars and vocals.

It is claimed that this is the first ever Italian prog rock album and the band was compiled by one of the leading lights in Italian art.

The musicians were recruited from a school and they recorded this album. None of the members has later recorded anything.

The music on this album is one long jam with psych, acid rock.

The music is from an LSD world or galaxy as there is hardly any structure here. The recording session must have been very cheap as there is hardly any refinement of the music here.

There is hardly any structure either and the sound is bad.

This is an historic document and only that. The music is next to worthless and that is why I give a turkey status.

1 star



Sunday 5 January 2020

IQ - Nomzamo (1987)


The third album from this British band.

The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, percussion, synths, organ, piano and vocals.
The band also had some help from guest musicians who provided

This album is the follow up album to the very good The Wake album from 1985. An album that launched the band.

IQ is one of the first neo-prog bands to ever emerge in the scene. They were very much following in the wake of Marillion.

This album gives us one hour of neo-prog. Standard neo-prog with some Pink Floyd vibes and saxophones.

There are also some pop like songs here and some ballads.

The vocals comes across as a cheap version of Peter Gabriel. The music has plenty of Genesis references too.

The sound is pretty light and thin. There is not many interesting details here and the music is too wrapped around the 1980s sound and attitudes.

The songs range from decent to good on this album. An album which is a solid step backwards from this band.

2.5 points


Diagonal - Arc (2019)


The third album from this English band.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of guitars, saxophones, bass, drums, electric piano, organ, synths, percussion and vocals.

Diagonal is a band who has been flying under the radar for a long time.

That is a great shame as this band is offering up something different than most prog bands.

And progressive rock, it is.

Take King Crimson and Pink Floyd, add some 60s psych rock and the modern days ambient and post-rock. Diagonal is somewhere in that landscape.

The album starts with some 1960s psych before it truly enters the eclectic prog genre with a lot of nods to King Crimson.

The saxophones is tastefully used throughout and they are supported by some haunting guitars and vocals.

There is a lot of mood and harmonies on this album.

The music is overall very good and this is an album which I hope will get a lot of friends. It deserves it.

3.5 points


Saturday 4 January 2020

Etron Fou Leloublan - Les Poumons Gonflés (1982)


The third album from this French band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of woodwinds, Farfisa organ, guitar, bass, drums, piano, violin and vocals.

This avant-garde band continues on again with a their third album.

In the original group of RIO bands, this band is the most difficult to grasp unless you speak French. Some of the listening experience is a bit flat without these language skills.

There is a lot of spoken words on the top of the music and I feel a bit left out here. Should have chosen French instead of German at school.....

The music is a mix of theatrical French vaudeville folk rock and some rock.

The music is indeed totally avant-garde...... But still some melodic. It is avant-garde folk rock for a large part of this album.

Then the woodwinds adds a lot of acid to the music.

The end result is strangely enough good. Not really great, but good.

Those who are looking for some real avant-garde prog should get this album.

3 points

Friday 3 January 2020

Arcadelt - Arc8 (2019)


The second album from this Italian band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, piano, programming, percussion and vocals.

The band released their debut album in 1994, an EP in 2010 and this album in 2019.

This is a band who does not hurry their creative outputs, in other words.

The band is giving us forty minutes plus of melodic neo-prog.

The neo-prog is lush with a lot of harmonies and melodies. References are both early Marillion and Genesis.

The music is not as muscular as expected. It is rather soft and is leaning towards Italian pop.

There are some music here which fails pretty badly. The ballad here is soppy and out of tune with the rest of the album.

Most of the album is good to very good. But the two bad songs here does not do this album any favours whatsoever.

3 points


Thursday 2 January 2020

Falena - Una Seconda Strana Sensazione (2019)


The third album from this Italian band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of synths, flute, bass, guitars, drums, percussion, keyboards and vocals.

I very much liked their second album after missing out on their debut album. Good, solid RPI. See my review here.

I was therefore looking forward to the follow up.

There are still a lot of Banco in their music. There is not so much Genesis, though.

The band has moved more towards King Crimson and some pretty eclectic RPI. There are even some hints of Area and a lot of Picchio Dal Pozzo here.

The album is also long this time around. Over one hour long.

The vocals are really good and adds a lot of power to this music. The music is pretty muscular and has a lot of good details.

Falena has again given us a very good album and one to enjoy this winter. They are really a band to be taken seriously and one of the better ones in the RPI scene.

3.5 points

Wednesday 1 January 2020

Habelard2 - Il Dado È Tratto (2019)


The sixth album from this Italian one-man band.

Habelard2 = Sergio Caleca who does all the keyboards, synths, programming, bass and guitars on this album.

His seven albums has been a bit of a mixed bag. From the turkeys to the pretty good ones.

His genre is is a difficult one, though.

It is pretty easy to be a one-man band if you are a very good musician. And Sergio Caleca is that. He is no doubt an excellent musician.

To make music which reaches out and resonates with other human beings is a very difficult thing though as the ideas and pieces of music has not been bouncing around other team members before being released. Great bands deliver great music because the bad ideas who the song writer thought was great has been discarded along the way before hitting the studio. There is also great songs, actually some of our best ever songs, out there who has been discarded by the song writer before over turned by the band before recorded and then become massive hits.

Sergio Caleca does not have this sounding board.

It is therefore very good that this album has become as good as this.

Take a lot of from Camel and Goblin. Merge them and you get this album. An album with a good mellotron and guitar sound.

This almost one hour long album is therefore a pleasing experience and weighs up for the not so cool experiences with his album. Sergio Caleca has my best wishes and thumbs up.

3 points


Steel Mill - Green Eyed God (1972)


The one and only album from this English band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, flute, bass, guitars, keyboards, woodwinds and vocals.
Two guest musicians helped out on guitars and bass.

Nothing is known about this band whatsoever. And there has been those who has been looking for the band members and returned empty handed.
This album and the singles sells for a king's ransom on the net.

This is again a semi-classic album from an obscure band. It has been re-released a couple of times too. My review is of the original album from 1972.

The band had a lot of various influences and that is what comes across on this album.

Take folk rock in the vein of Jethro Tull, mix it with blues, add a lot of hard rock and brass rock. Also add in some soul and krautrock too. There is some occult rock here too and the music is pretty dark and down that alley.

The music is decent enough. The vocals are pretty good too. It is an album well worth checking out indeed.

2 points



Alluminogeni. Gli - Metafisico (2019)


The fourth album from this Italian band.

The band is a trio on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals.
Two guest musicians helped out the band on guitar and bass.

The band debuted in 1972, reappeared again the early 1990s and then took a break until 2019.

They are not the most productive band in other words.

Metafisico has a set of new songs on this album. Songs in the RPI tradition. And it is indeed an RPI band Gli Alluminogeni is.

Their take on RPI - Rock Progressive Italiano - is pretty dark. The sound is muddy indeed. Is that by intent or due to a bad studio ? I do not know.

The vocals and the keyboards are good and suitably dark. The guitars are at times distorted.

This is indeed an album from the dark moors of the RPI scene. The songs are pretty epic too.

The album is an enjoyable listen though. It is not one of the best RPI albums from 2019 and the band has never really been highly rated. But it is still a good album.

3 points