ORLANDO: LE FORME DELL'AMORE

While indisputably one of the prog scene's greatest bands ever to emerge from 1970s Italy, BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO better known as BANCO dominated the world of symphonic prog but like most proggers of the day totally derailed once musical tastes shifted and left the band struggling to adapt to the new world of punk, heavy metal and new wave. BANCO was not very good at watering its classic sophisti-prog down into the sugary realms of pop music and despite crafting some of the all time classics with albums like "Darwin," equally churned out some of the most nauseating attempts of a band of such caliber trying to fit in with the newer contemporary sounds. The 80s was not kind. After a final attempt to gain some momentum in the alternative 90s and even an ill-fated attempt to re-record "Darwin," BANCO fell silent presumably never to be heard from again.

This was made all the more so when legendary lead singer Francesco Di Giacomo perished in a car accident in 2014. Who in the world would have thought that this legendary band had any second life in them? BANCO shocked the prog world it was reformed by the only original member still standing, pianist and keyboardist Vittorio Nocenzi with a new cast of characters and released "Transiberiana" in 2019. The track record of forty year old prog bands reforming and recapturing the spirit of their original run isn't very good and although nobody initially thought anything of this comeback, BANCO exceeded expectations with a brilliant album that melded the soulful performances of decades ago with a new modern sheen that incorporated all the newer production techniques to the mix. I was pleasantly surprised for sure and now it's officially no one off fluke. BANCO are back with ORLANDO: LE FORME DELL'AMORE (The Shapes of Love), officially the band's 18th studio album.

Hard to believe that ORLANDO: LE FORME DELL'AMORE has arrived just in time for the band's 50th anniversary of the self-titled masterpiece and "Darwin" but a half of a century has elapsed making it so. Unbelievably BANCO sounds amazingly reinvigorated with the same music mojo that brought them to the world's stage so many decades ago. This is a concept album not based on the famous city in Florida but rather the 16th century poem "Orlando Furioso" written by Ludovico Ariosto which first appeared in 1516. ORLANDO was a Christian knight who fought in the war between the Charlemagne Christian paladins and the Saracen army that invaded Europe for the sake of overthrowing the Christian empire. The poem itself was divided into 46 cantos. The concept and complex nature of the poem lends to an amazing display of musical antics that accompany these themes.

ORLANDO, the album is like a double album from the classic prog era with 15 tracks and a running time of a whopping 79 minutes, quite a risky endeavor for a band some 50 years in existence but let's face it: this is BANCO in name only with only one original member. Despite the fact that Vittorio Nocenzi is the only original knight in this musical escapade though doesn't mean that this lineup of six hasn't successfully captured the essence of BANCO's classic sound. In fact ORLANDO is an even better album than "Transiberiana" which i rather liked quite a bit. Like any great Italian prog album, lyrics are exclusively in the Italian language and the diversity of sounds matches anything from the golden years. The new vocalist Tony D'Alessio performs the unthinkable task of replacing the late great Franceso Di Giacomo and while this may prove to be an insurmountable task, D'Alessio delivers stellar performances despite not being a young whippersnapper himself.

Paced like a traditional concept album from the classic prog years, ORLANDO opens with poetic prose and then breaks into a never ending series of melodic developments, strong composiitons and of course excellent musical deliveries. Although not original members, the five musicians sound like seasoned veterans in the prog field with the ability to craft pastoral intricate melodies or bombastic outbursts of prog excesses often within the same track. The track "Il Palidino" showcases some of the knottiest hefty workouts on the entire album. Lush ballads and adrenaline fueled heaviness more or less perfectly narrate the concept without the listener having any idea what the Italian lyrics are referencing. Most of all much effort was obviously put into the album's diversity of individual tracks which makes ORLANDO a most surprising comeback indeed.

Perhaps the biggest downfall of ORLANDO: LE FORME DELL'AMORE is its excessive playing time. I mean 79 minutes is a lot to ask for in our contemporary short attention span era. There's no way i would've even considered listening to this album if not for the fact it was BANCO! While BANCO's classic albums are in no danger of being outdone, this one is so much better than i could've possibly hoped for. The album basically builds on what what was presented on "Transiberiana" as the new BANCO and carried out to classic BANCO progginess. None of the guys in this lineup are youthful so don't expect any virtuosic performances on par with past glories but for a band of aging prog rockers you really couldn't expect anything better than what is presented on ORLANDO. The album could be shorter but even so there are really no substandard tracks, just too many of them! An excellent comeback for BANCO who appears to be on a roll with its second coming. Bravissimo!