A PIEDI NUDI

With their namesake album, Italian band A Piedi Nudi debuted in the musical business as a powerful ensemble who created a harsh, complex prog, filled with lots of symphonic nuances and Gothic-like textures, and delivered with polished proficiency. Hard rocking guitar riffs and solos, delirious keyboard layers and leads, a potent rhythm section, and a passionate tenor: these are the ingredients of the A Piedi Nudi prog offering. To a certain degree, their style is reminiscent of some of their legendary compatriots on the heavier side of prog: Alphataurus, Biglietto per l'Inferno, Museo Rosenbach. Now, mentally picture a combination of all three of them, plus a touch of 73-74 King Crimson, and an ounce of that special prog metal spice - this pretty much draws an accurate description of the album's overall sound. The resulting repertoire is richly melodic and full of energetic fire, but lacking some inspirational magic. It is nothing out of these guys' reach, as their next two recordings were to show in following years, but by now the repertoire becomes a bit monotonous during the whole sequence: clearly, this is not a case of lack of imagination, but maturity, so after all this flaw is not so serious, all things considered. 'Introduzione', 'Il Duello' and 'Epilogo', being the longest tracks, are the ones that steal the limelight due to the level of complexity construed in both melody and structure. Among the most concise numbers, 'Un Giorno dal Cielo', 'Ritratto' and 'La Cattura' are the catchiest ones, built on a hard rock foundation, with a Gothic-like twist that allows some symphonic splendour enter and add some slightly disturbing chiaroscuro in order to create some emotional intensity. This same emotional intensity happens to be enhanced in the most melancholy tracks, 'Soliloquio' and 'E' Morto il Re' - had these two 3+ minute numbers been expanded a bit longer, perhaps their full potential would have been worked out more conveniently. All in all, this is a very good album that has to be appreciated mostly as an anticipation of greater things to come in the spectacular 'Creazione' and 'Eclissi'. but those are different stories to be reviewed somewhere else. So my real rating for this one is 3 1/2 stars.