PERSPECTIVES

Severed Garden were a band from Chieti, Abruzzo, formed in 2009 by Joele Turchi (vocals, rhythm guitar), Giorgio Manca (lead guitar, backing vocals), Ivan Di Sipio (keyboards, backing vocals), Danilo D'Onofrio (bass) and Manuel Cernero (drums). In 2011 they self-released a promising debut album entitled Perspectives featuring five original pieces in neo-prog style and a Genesis cover. Unfortunately, the band didn't last long after this first effort and gave up in 2015 but their music remains and in my opinion is still worth listening to...

The nightmarish opener "The Last Cold Winter" deals with the difficult relationship between humankind and nature and features apocalyptic, hermetic lyrics where some Aztec gods like Tlaloc (god of the rain, of earthly fertility and of water) and Ehecatl (deity associated with the wind) personify the natural forces in a silent dream where blood is merged with tears in a burning, dying land...

The nervous "The Invisible Box" tells about bad trips and strange, claustrophobic visions sucking out strength and freedom. The invisible box represents a prison with no doors nor way out, a pathetic exercise of senseless, unconscious masochism on a desperate psychedelic land... A good metaphor to describe the dangers of drug addiction!

The reflective, melancholic "Close Distance" deals the deep sense of loss for a missing person whose smile will remains forever in the memory of the protagonist while the following "Years Of Rain" is more aggressive. It's a kind of invective against war, greediness and all sort of human madness that starts by the voice of Martin Luther King... "We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers...".

The introspective "Hide" could recall Marillion and deals with the contrast between dreams and reality... The last track is a cover of Genesis' "Firth Of Fifth", a kind of "bonus track" and a tribute to one of Severed Garden's main sources of inspiration.