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La Maschera Di Cera - La Maschera Di Cera CD (album) cover

LA MASCHERA DI CERA

La Maschera Di Cera

 

Rock Progressivo Italiano

3.98 | 178 ratings

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apps79
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars After the millenium happened what the whole prog rock community was wishing for : the rise of a modern italian symphonic prog wave.The legend of bands like PFM,BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO,METAMORHOSI,LE ORME and some later ones like EZRA WINSTON,NUOVA ERA and ERIS PLUVIA is nowadays carried on by acts like NOTABENE,RANDONE and MANGALA VALLIS...MASCHERA DI CERA belong to this latest group of italian bands trying to rebirth the 70's italian sound and they are considerd as another project of the mastermind and multi-talented musician Fabio Zuffanti.The band made their debut in 2002 with an excellent self-titled album...

It's more than evident that this time Zuffanti wants to show his admiration for MUSEO ROSENBACH.Almost everything in this album seems like it's been dedicated to MUSEO ROSENBACH's masterpiece ''Zarathustra''.The work is full of vintage keyboard sounds through the magnificent work of Agostin Macor on Hammond AND melltron.Alessandro Corvaglia contributes on vocals and tries to sound as close as possible to the dark voice of Stefano Califi,vocalist of MUSEO ROSENBACH.Even the structure of the album is similar to ''Zarathustra''.The album is about 40 min. long,consist of only 4 songs,the epic of the album is about 20.min long,comes first in line and has the same title with the album!!!Reminds you of something?...Last but not least comes the production.A very good job is done so the sound of the band closes the spirit of the 70's italian classic releases...

However,there are also some slight differences between the two bands.The most obvious is the unstoppable and heavy use of flute,represented by the great flutist Andrea Monetti.That is what makes me think that MASCHERA... could be also influenced by QUELLA VECCHIA LOCCANDA's works...Additionaly some really nice female vocals pop up here and there and give a different colour to the music...

In terms of musicianship the band is simply amazing.''La maschera di cera'' is a great piece of music.Alternating mellow and hard prog moments,dark musicianship,haunting vocals,amazing Hammong organ work and rhythmic flute passages deliver a beautiful experience of italian symphonic rock...The spirit of ''Zarathustra'' lives on indeed!''Del mio mondo...'' is dominated by the heavy bass lines of Zuffanti,the flute improvisations of Monetti and the darkened vocals of Corvaglia...''Del mio abisso...'' is the most dark track of all.It spins off with some smooth piano but soon the track transforms into a ROSENBACH-like haunted piece of music with dramatic vocals and a ghost-like atmosphere created by the keyboards,flute and the female vocals...''Del mio volo'' comes like a cross between BANCO and MUSEO with atmospheric vocals,mostly acoustic guitars and back-round keyboards.A great end for a great album...

MASCHERA DI CERA have done it very well.Everything we missed from the 70's italian scene and especially the heavy symphonic rock sound is included in this album.Despite not being the most original release of all times,this work contains some trully amazing vocals/music performance and anyone who enjoys italian progressive rock must listen to this...Personally I liked this a lot!...4 full stars!

apps79 | 4/5 |

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