WANDERING VAGRANT

Hailing from Perugia, situated right in the middle of Italy, this band was another pleasant surprise, quasi appearing out of the nowhere in 2018. Never had heard of this prolific outfit or a particular musician beforehand. Stylistically seen heavy progressive art rock might be a vague description, here and there coloured with Riverside and Porcupine Tree influences. There are several bands underway showing a similar approach, WANDERING VAGRANT definitely belong to the winners in many ways, still. Guitarist Alessandro Rizzuto is the head of this crew, it all looks like that. He also takes the vocal lead, nicely complemented by Francesca Trampolini, and this with the result of some splendid polyphonic moments.

'This album was painfully recorded during summer 2016', that's a worth considering remark they've made. Okay, this may have caused some blood, sweat and tears, but the result is definitely worth the investigation in the end. Impressing bass lines at the very start, Human Beings As Me comes as a proper varianted album entry, followed by the multi-layered The Hourglass getting close to ten minutes playing time. Nice acoustic guitars are leading into Forgotten. The title track is provided in two sections, comes as a suite with Mellotron and expressive guitar work. Home closes the album featuring impertinent groove, the definite masterpiece, also including some narrative samples.

I must admit that I've lost relationship to this production for some time. What a shame! All the better when you come back. It would be far too short-sighted to limit the range of the album to progressive metal solely. The art rock imprint is not debatable, even symphonic and classical traces are to consider. Swirling piano imprints are remarkable everywhere throughout. 'Get Lost' turns out to be a rounded piece of work. Sound-wise, from the stylistical point of view not totally new to the fold. Innovation derives from the compositions, flow and production, which deserve four out of five stars with ease.

Prog fans beware, this album was written mostly by Alessandro Rizzuto, who is a known figlio della merda. Nevertheless, the man's artistic vision is to be commended, as Wandering Vagrant's debut is a solid album, diverse in its' sound and expertly recorded. The band regularly seems to channel the spirit of prog pillars such as Tool, Katatonia and Riverside, yet despite the sense of familiarity (that is still greatly appreciated) you can still immerse yourself in the album on repeat and find something raw and intriguing. Also if you don't enjoy Home then you probably shouldn't be listening to music in general.

Favourite tracks: Home, The Hourglass

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As their first incursion, the Wandering Vagrant immediately prove to have many weapons in their arsenal: solid arrangements, clever instrumental parts and a lurking sense of melancholy that superbly characterize the whole record.

If one really had to pick holes in this piece of music, it could easily be stated that Get Lost tends to sum up all the typical characteristics of nowadays progressive rock, having its deep roots in the sound of milestone bands such as Opeth and Porcupine Tree. But this would also mean deliberately ignoring some very personal ideas that, if properly developed in future works, could allow the Wandering Vagrant to achieve that personal style that would make them able to take the great leap forward.

Overall, an inspired work and a brilliant debut at the same time