LA MECCANICA NATURALE

The latest album from one of the best contemporary Italian groups. I hate to say this but I find this to be a drawback after the fantastic "In Ogni Luogo" album. Nevertheless, it's still great and some of the best prog that comes from Italy nowadays. What I like about Finisterre is that they have the ability to make albums that sound completely different from each other (at least to me). You can hear that the band members have very different musical influences and they are able to interpret these influences in different albums and different songs very successfully. They also fulfil these musical needs in various Finisterre related side projects. When compared to the perhaps most popular Finisterre offshoot, La Maschera di Cera, I have to say that I prefer the 'mother' band Finisterre. Though I think La Maschera di Cera is very good their problem is that their two studio albums so far sound very similar to me.

This new Finisterre album, again, is very different from its predecessors. Their previous album "In Ogni Luogo" was a modern prog masterpiece and this new album is maybe a bit more in the vein of "In Limine" (70's progressive style) but with a much richer sound world and without the flute. The compositions are much more varied.

The highlight tracks for me are "La Perfezione", "La mia Identita" and "Ode al Mare". Worth noticing is that for the first time they have dual-keyboards (Agostino Macor has joined the group since the previous album).

Conclusion: It's great. Some of the best value for your money if buying new progressive.