PSALM 6

ROZ VITALIS from St. Petersburg is an instrumental prog act led by composer and keyboardist Ivan Rozmainsky. I had the pleasure of getting and reviewing their latest album Lavoro d'Amore (2015), which I considered to be one of my favourite prog releases of that year. Now I was asked to review this 33-minute EP. It's said to be a sort of a preview of the upcoming full-length album. Sadly so, from my point of view. I could accept the shortness per se, but I don't like the idea of dealing with something that will lose some its value of usage when the finished product comes along. I try to take this music as it is, though.

The lengthy opening title track starts with rather metallic rock attitude and a heavy guitar riff that goes on for two minutes. Trumpets nevertheless make it clear that there's more to it. And indeed, the track continues beautifully as a flute-centred, melodic instrumental prog in a retroish manner. Electric guitar solo is lovely too, but the odd, distorted sound after that (a metallophone?) feels unnecessary to me. Synth-oriented 'Trattamento 1' starts with a New Agey atmosphere, but again the arrangement and mood go through some changes midway. This band never fails to be bravely progressive and find new sonic paths, while always offering familiar enough elements for an advanced prog-listener to feel comfortable.

'The Prophet' contains a lot of emotional contradictions represented by delicate piano, dystopically low bass playing and mysterious trumpet wailings, not forgetting the organ that makes me think of the Italian classic band GOBLIN. 'Denial of Access' is my least fave track here, it feels like a little odd excercise. 'Passing Over' returns to the more emotional, retro instrumental-prog approach, and the EP closes with a piano-oriented, melancholic 'Trattamento 2'.

This music is highly intelligent and full of surprises without losing emotional aspects either. There's no doubt that Roz Vitalis is among the finest prog acts in Eastern Europe today. But the nature of this release makes me stick with three stars only.

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