L'ERA DELLA MENZOGNA

Italian prog masters DELIRIUM are back with another collection of solid progressive rock/RPI songs. Diversity is again the name of the game with this band as one can find female operatic voices (on "L'Angelo el Fango") along side the gravelly voice of lead singer Alessandro Corvaglia, nice keyboard work through out and the nice touch of flute throughout. This is seasoned, well-constructed, nice to listen to prog, Delirium's music is actually quite difficult to place--though it does have that theatric presence common to so much of Italian progressive rock music--but their mix of old, retro and modern keyboards with unusual recording, engineering and mixing choices is quite distinctive and . . . unique.

Favorite songs: 1. "L'inganno del potere" (6:26); the emotional Gregorian-chant presence in 8. "Basta" (5:17); 5. "La deriva" (3:54); the beautiful "L'angelo della fango" (3:45) and the Latin-tinged "La voce dell'anima" (3:31).

Not as strong as 2009's Il nome del vento, but a decent, enjoyable collection of well-constructed songs.