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LA MASCHERA DI CERA

Rock Progressivo Italiano • Italy


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La Maschera Di Cera picture
La Maschera Di Cera biography
Founded in Genova, Italy in 2001

Hello, fans of genuine 70's Italian Prog... Rejoice! Fabio ZUFFANTI (FINISTERRE) just came out with his new side project, LA MASCHERA DI CERA. The music mounts back to the best Mellotron / Moog driven symphonic prog performed by bands like MUSEO ROSENBACH or IL BALLETO DI BRONZO. All the ingredients are in place: distorted basses, accoustic guitars, an excellent vocalist and very inspired flute passages complete the set. The result is a nostalgic flash-back to the roots of the italian prog. A must for fans of this country's very best!

See also: WiKi

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LA MASCHERA DI CERA discography


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LA MASCHERA DI CERA top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.98 | 178 ratings
La Maschera Di Cera
2002
4.07 | 195 ratings
Il Grande Labirinto
2003
3.97 | 184 ratings
LuxAde
2006
3.57 | 131 ratings
Petali Di Fuoco
2009
4.01 | 341 ratings
Le Porte Del Domani
2013
3.83 | 110 ratings
The Gates Of Tomorrow
2013
4.03 | 159 ratings
S.E.I.
2020

LA MASCHERA DI CERA Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.38 | 19 ratings
In Concerto
2004

LA MASCHERA DI CERA Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

LA MASCHERA DI CERA Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 5 ratings
Le Porte del Domani (2CD+LP Collector's Box Set)
2013

LA MASCHERA DI CERA Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

LA MASCHERA DI CERA Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 S.E.I. by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.03 | 159 ratings

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S.E.I.
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by Mellotron Storm
Prog Reviewer

4 stars This is the latest studio album from LA MASCHERA DI CERA released in 2020. They have been a five piece right from that 2002 debut and technically still are but they show the drummer and sax/flute players as guests as the original flautist left after the previous album along with the drummer. The new blower is from DELIRIUM while the guy on the kit is from IL TEMPIO DELLE CLESSIDRE. This is one of those modern RPI bands who have captured that 70's RPI sound almost to perfection. In part it's the vocals but also the mellotron and keyboards. The bass from Zuffanti has such a nasty tone to it and is a highlight for sure.

Only three tracks but worth 45 minutes. I have to say this one really impressed me but it's not without it's faults. I would put it though with "Il Grande Labirinto" and "Le Porte Del Domani" my top three albums from them. So yes this is a great record overall. It's so warm with the flute, mellotron and vocals especially bringing the heat. It doesn't get much better than that almost 22 minute opener "Il Tempo Millinario" a symphonic delight. Themes are repeated and this is a long ride. So many highlights usually involving the bass or mellotron. Some boiling organ and the sax is on fire in the second half. The singer plays acoustic guitar and we get that during some of the calms. Flute is great as well.

I'm not as big on the middle track "Il Cerchio Del Comando" at 10 minutes although the first four minutes are outstanding. The closer "Vacho Senso" at almost 14 minutes features some new sounds like distorted organ bringing Canterbury to mind and jazzy sax leads. The flute to start is haunting and brings ANGLAGARD to mind before it kicks in beautifully with heavy bass, drums and mellotron. Oh my! There are some real swings in music styles on this one. Lots of piano as well. Jazzy flute around 6 1/2 minutes followed by that distorted organ 8 minutes in. Huge bass lines follow. Such highs to this album.

Easily 4 stars and it was a pleasure to spend time with this band, it's been a while.

 La Maschera Di Cera by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2002
3.98 | 178 ratings

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La Maschera Di Cera
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by VianaProghead
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Review Nº 565

Simply trying to play, nowadays, the style of the great prog music from the 70's can go very wrong, especially when the respective interpreters aren't bringing their own ideas. But, fortunately this isn't the case of Fabio Zuffanti. It's really difficult to keep a complete overview of all of Zuffanti's projects. The bassist, who made a name for himself for tasteful retro-Italo-Prog with Finisterre and Hostsonaten in particular, has, in addition to these completely different projects (including the rock opera "Merlin"), another band La Maschera Di Cera. La Maschera Di Cera is another retro-prog project founded in 2001 by Zuffanti. With this new project, Zuffanti wanted to revive the "golden age of the Italo-Prog".

Right from the beginning, it became very clear the band's clear intention to walk on the paths of some of the best and most iconic Italian prog bands from the 70's, such as Le Orme, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Museo Rosenbach, Alphataurus, Il Balletto Di Bronzo, Osanna, and Metamorfosi, only to mention some of them. But, apart from that, the band managed to develop its own style and originality, playing the retro-Italo-Prog in their way. This is especially due to the influence of Andrea Monetti , who, with his particular flute playing style, enlarged and enriched the band's musical spectrum with influences that bring to our memory one of the best British prog bands, Jethro Tull.

"La Maschera Di Cera" is the eponymous debut studio album of La Maschera Di Cera and that was released in 2002. Besides Fabio Zuffanti (vocals, bass and acoustic guitar), the line up on "La Maschera Di Cera" consists of Alessandro Corvaglia (lead and backing vocals), Agostini Macor (Mellotron, piano, prepared piano, organ, Moog, harpsichord and VCS 3 synth), Andrea Monetti (flute) and Marco Cavani (drums, timpani and percussion). Their sef-titled debut work had also the participation of Nadia Girardi (vocals) as a guest female artist.

In terms of musicianship, "La Maschera Di Cera" is just an amazing work. "La Maschera Di Cera" is a great prog piece of music. The music on "La Maschera Di Cera" goes back to the best symphonic Italian progressive rock music conducted by Mellotron and Moog tracked by bands like Museo Rosenbach or Il Balleto Di Bronzo. All the ingredients are present with distorted basses, guitars, acoustic guitars, an excellent vocalist and some very inspired flute passages that can complete the ensemble. The result is a nostalgic flash-back to the roots of Italian Progressive Rock, alternating the smooth and intense progressive moments, dark musicality, haunting vocals, incredible Hammond organ work and rhythmic flute passages that provide a beautiful experience that only the Italian symphonic prog rock is able to create.

"La Maschera Di Cera" has four tracks. The first track is the title track "La Maschera Di Cera" divided in six parts: "Il Tuo Volto", "La Tua Gente", "Il Tuo Fugio", "La Tua Irrealta", "La Tua Guida" and "La Mia Fine?". The suite "La Maschera Di Cera" is superb, never losing its intrigue. It punches us within its almost 20 minutes long. It's filled with passionate singing and brilliant keyboard work. It can compete with any of the long pieces of 70's Italian prog bands. It has pure symphonic prog rock with totally analog sound, great vocals, flutes, Mellotrons and Hammonds. It has many melodies and positive feeling, energy and some hard moments. The spirit of "Zaratustra" lives on in "Del Mio Mondo Che Crolla". It's dominated by Zuffanti's heavy bass lines, Jethro Tull-like flute work improvisations, layers of Moog and Mellotron and Corvaglia's dark vocals. The melody sounds somewhat reminiscent of the earlier piece. "Del Mio Abisso E Del Tuo Vuoto" is divided in three parts: "Il Vuoto", "L'Abisso" and "E Senza U Peso Io Salgo". It's the darkest track on the album, wonderful and enigmatic with a similar line in sound and quality. It starts with smooth piano, but soon the track turns into a haunted piece of music with dramatic vocals and a ghostly atmosphere created by keyboards, flute and female vocals. "Del Mio Volo" comes as a cross between Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso and Museo Rosenbach with atmospheric vocals, mostly acoustic guitars and perfect keyboards. It has a gentle folk intro, which it slowly builds, climaxing with the revisited Moog theme. Despite it's a relatively short track, this a great ending to a great album, really.

Conclusion: "La Maschera Di Cera" is a great work. Everything we missed in the 70's Italian prog rock scene and especially the heavy sound of the symphonic rock is included on this album. With plenty of retro-like synths, piano, organ, and Mellotron, along with the periodic inclusion of flute, not to mention the numerous and varied song segments, tempo changes, and appealing atmospheres, this is the kind of albums that appeals to me. Although not the most original release of all time, this work contains some truly amazing songs with some truly amazing vocal work. So, I immediately sensed this would be a band that I could savor for a long time to come. It seems incredible that Zuffanti could have given us two albums so good as this one and Hostsonaten's "Springsong", in the same year. Anyone into the Rock Progressivo Italiano should listen to this album and all fans of 70's Italian prog rock, should buy it right now.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

 Le Porte Del Domani by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2013
4.01 | 341 ratings

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Le Porte Del Domani
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by ElChanclas

4 stars LPDD is the fifth studio album by Italian progressive rock band La Maschera Di Cera and is my point of entry to their catalog. The lineup for this amazing album is:

- Fabio Zuffanti on bass

- Alessandro Corvaglia on lead vocals and acoustic and electric guitars

- Mauricio Di Tollo on drums

- Andrea Monetti on flute

- Agostino Macor on all sort of pianos, keyboards and synthetizers

This is modern Italian progressive rock at its best. The vocals are fenomenal and Corvaglia's guitar work Is also outstanding. Zuffanti is a very talented musician and his bass playing, both rhythmic and melodic are an unquestionable highlight when present. The sound layers created by Macor are so good they sometimes sound unearthly, beautiful, lush, symphonic, incredible. I got into Prog because of Mr. Ian Anderson so Monetti got me with the first flute note, powerful and determined, precise and well executed. There's an alternate version for this album that's is sang in English in its entirety, but the Corvaglia's singing in Italian is simply unbeatable.

This is a concept that allegedly works as continuation for the album Felona e Sorona (1973) by Italian progressive rock legends Le Orme, a story about two planets that revolve one around the other without ever coming in contact, Felina is a colorful, bright and happy poner while Sorona is dark, sad and home of bad things? that original concept was left somehow unresolved and Mr. Zuffanti and his crew of amazing musicians decided to "solve" or give an ending to that concept 40 years later.

I haven't listened to that original concept album so I'm in no right of judging of comparing, but I can definitely state that Le Porte Del Domani grabbed me and impressed me, I appreciate every note and every passage here, the heavy ones, the more melodic, the symphonic, the cosmic ones?the variety within the same genre is delightful. I do have a couple of highlights in "La Guerra Dei Mille Anni", "L'enorme Abisso", "Viaggio Metafísico" and "Alba Nel Tempio

 Le Porte Del Domani by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2013
4.01 | 341 ratings

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Le Porte Del Domani
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by Dapper~Blueberries
Prog Reviewer

4 stars I have grown a full on attachment to Italian Progressive Rock. The lot of multiple musical styles in a fresh new and foreign tone gives it a sort of edge, both stylistically and conceptually, especially with Italian culture being in the front end of most albums from both the classic and modern eras of Italian Progressive Rock and what brought it to be and what kept it moving forward. It's only super interesting to learn about. However I am not gonna talk about that, because I am reviewing the album by the side project band curated and lead by Fabio Zuffanti, La Maschera Di Cera, the album of which is Le Porte Del Domani.

I really love La Maschera Di Cera. How the band uses the old elements of what made Progressive rock so good, and revitalize them to where they are more modernized is super cool to me, and I am always a sucker for that kinda stuff in music. I feel like that is the main reason why I really dig the band so much to begin with, especially with their longer songs and how to can make such a bombastic sound. It's honestly entertaining to hear. How the album just goes super hard and how it can switch from a Symphonic sound to a Folk sound on a dime gives it a lot of weight.

I'd say, Ritorno Dal Nulla is such a great opening track on this album. How the such just ascends and changes to such a grand sound is super well done and I just feel super good when listening to it. La Guerra Dei Mille Anni is also pretty good, it's a bit more folk like but it doesn't stray away too far from the general sound of this album. Ritratto Di Lui is a pretty beautiful ambient-ish track that is fairly calming, though it kinda leaves your head afterwards which I find a pretty bad detriment.

L'enorme Abisso is such a good track. It goes super hard and hits you like a train after the last track, and just has some kinda epic quality too it. Funny how after this we get another more calming track with Ritratto Di Lei, however it's less quiet and a bit more intimidating, which I think adds a bit of flavor, but it is also fairly forgettable also, so that kinda sucks.

But after all that, we get another hard hitting track with Viaggio Metafisico, super hard and kinda heavy, and has some great drumming and synth work that makes me surprised that this band isn't as popular as bands like PFM or Le Orme. Now afterwards, the album sorta gets a bit slow for me, especially with the song Alba Nel Tempio. It's a good track, don't get me wrong, I love the guitar and the synths on it, but it starts to show on how fast this album can probably lose it's steam after some great and hard hitting tracks, especially since the songs afterwards are a better slower and quieter than the previous ones.

This is where I find some mishaps on the album. For one I feel like the vocals are a bit rusty. Not bad but they are definitely a acquired taste, especially when they sing in a higher pitch. It definitely feels a bit old and rustic, which could add to some charm, but for me they sort of way the album down a bit. And also, some songs just don't really work. The ambient and more tranquil tracks especially, they feel a bit out of place next to some heavy hitting songs and they kinda make the album lose all the speed it was building up. It's not the worst thing in the world, but they kinda hold a candle on what I think you should not do when making more quiet tracks after your more heavy tracks.

So all in all, great album, and definitely will be a Italian Prog classic, though that doesn't mean it's the best album in the world. It's a classic in my eyes, but even classics have some issues that should be critiqued on. I really liked this album, and I think you'll do too.

 S.E.I. by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.03 | 159 ratings

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S.E.I.
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by TenYearsAfter

4 stars This acclaimed Italian formation was founded in 2001 but between its debut album from 2002 and this new album entitled S.E.I. (Separazione, Egolatria, Inganno which means Separation, Selfishness, Deceit) the band only released four studio efforts, the previous one Le Porte Del Domani (also released as The Gates Of Tomorrow) is from 2013, a gap of seven years so it was about time for La Maschera Di Cera to present a new album to its many fans.

Listening to S.E.I. (Separazione, Egolatria, Inganno which means Separation, Selfishness, Deceit) I remember the words of a fellow proghead and Tron-maniac, in 2003: he had visited the Belgian progrock festival Spirit Of Verviers and was blown away by La Maschera Di Cera, "with 3 Mellotrons on stage" he yelled euphoric! Well, perhaps these 3 Mellotrons were in the recording studio during S.E.I., incredible, what a mindblowing Mellotron drenched sound, always a bonus for me! This new album contains 3 long tracks, with a running time of almost 43 minutes, that reminds me of the good old vinyl era.

The first composition Il Tempo Millenario is the epic of the album, close to 22 minutes. It sounds mainly in the realm of Old School symphonic rock, with lots of changing atmospheres: dreamy with folky flute play or tender piano, accellarations featuring powerful saxophone or flute soli, and sumptuous outbursts. Often these intense eruptions are layered with majestic Mellotron choirs, for me this is Tron Heaven! The swirling Hammond organ sounds like a tribute to Keith Emerson. While the agressive bass work from the prolific musician Fabio Zuffanti reminds me more of King Crimson, and Anekdoten. The final part is very compelling, delivering a slow rhythm with synthesizer flights, and again majestic Mellotron choirs. Wow, this is outstanding Italian prog, an 'eargasm', topped with inspired, slightly theatrical Italian vocals that match perfectly with the mighty Mellotron sound!

The second track Il Cerchio Del Comando often brings the alternating and dynamic folky prog of Änglagård to my mind: between mellow and bombastic featuring lots of flute play, Hammond, Mellotron violins, and a growling bass, with powerful Italian vocals. In the end a build-up with a wonderful Mellotron, piano and flute, and a bombastic closing section featuring Hammond, powerful bass and sparkling flute.

The final song Vacuo Senso is the most varied, alternating and experimental, with hints from Anekdoten (lush Mellotron violin sound), early King Crimson (jazz and avant-garde inspired), Classic Italian Prog like PFM and Banco, embellished with omnipresent saxophone work, a wonderful Mellotron violins interlude, and lots of interesting musical ideas. The final part is trademark La Maschera Di Cera featuring a compelling Mellotron drenched symphonic rock atmosphere, wow!

It's incredible how this band has matured, in 2002 I got their first album as a CD-R (while writing for Dutch prog magazine iO Pages), it sounded promising but a bit unstructured at times. Almost 20 years later this new La Maschera Di Cera album turns out to be a very pleasant and well structured musical experience, recommended to Tron-maniacs and Italian prog aficionados.

 S.E.I. by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.03 | 159 ratings

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S.E.I.
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by *ChristianRO*

5 stars Rock Progressivo Italiano is my favourite prog rock genre and La Maschera Di Cera is my favourite RPI band. So when I have heard about this new album from them I was more excited than ever. And my expectation were highly rewarded. Although this new release is very different from their last release (Le Porte Del Domani) in terms of structure, SEI is equally good and rewarding. There are only three songs but epic ones, regarding the lenght, the shorter one being 10 minutes long and the first is about 22 minutes long. As you can guess, the album is full of grandiose vintage keyboards, great vocals and a perfect bass. Of course the italian language is compulsory for a RPI release. Separazione / Egolatria / Inganno is by far my favourite album of 2020 and it can be my favourite La Maschera Di Cera album. Time will tell. Strong five stars album!!
 S.E.I. by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.03 | 159 ratings

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S.E.I.
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by BrufordFreak
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

4 stars Fabio Zuffanti is back with another release from his most successful prog project. While the band's previous release, 2013's La Porto di domini was, to my ears, a flop (especially for being the successor to LE ORME's highly acclaimed 1973 release, Felona e Sorona), the compositions, recording, and performances here are fairly strong.

1. "Il tempo millenario" (21:43) opens with a very familiar heavy feel and sound á la their previous album, La porto di domini. At 1:20 it moves into a prettier, more laid-back pastoral flute-centric passage before reverting to bare bones for the vocal section to begin at the end of the third minute. The vocals are pretty good! At 4:00 we move back into an up tempo, rather ominous section until 4:30 when everything takes a surprising turn into a pulsing, PINK FLOYD-like jazz-rock passage--with even the saxophone and organ perpetuating the PF vibe. The toned down section beginning in the seventh minute is pretty with its sparsely populated drawn out instrumental spaciousness. I like this very much. Imagine a pregnant GENESIS passage with Peter Gabriel performing his theatric storytelling and then the instruments bursting out from their hiding places to punctuate the drama of PG's epic story. Piano and harpsichord lay out a new and different (more Il Balletto di Bronzo-like) motif in the twelfth minute before we move into a clavichord-supported and Mellotron-drenched vocal section. I don't care for these heavily affected vocals--but they quickly withdraw from these for a spell before shifting at 13:30 into high speed romp into Hammond and sax rock and roll. The power vocals here try to be theatric but feel a little over top (as the music is a bit under-the-top). Just weird Hammond play and solo (more like a Halloween parody). Even when the pace and sax redouble at the 16:00 mark I am distracted by the weird, almost comical Hammond--which, unfortunately, detracts from the power and force being attempted in the vocal in the early eighteenth minute. The pensive passage that follows is better--great drums and sax help to almost drown out the Hammond. At 18:27, then, we downshift into a floating soundscape that lends itself to the sensitivity of Alessandro's vocal--but then once again it breaks into a kind of triumphant celebratory passage at 18:20--very RPI and Genesisian (think La Coscienza di Zeno and Supper's Ready's As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs). There are definitely some great parts to this song--and a mastery of "classic" prog and RPI forms and palettes here--but not enough to make the whole stand out on its own as a new classic. (35.25/40): - i. L'anima in Rovina - ii. Nuvole Gonfie - iii. La Mia Condanna - iv. Scparazione - v. Del tempo sprecato

2. "Il cerchio del comando" (9:57) a very strong, stereotypic RPI song whose good quality and appeal, unfortunately, for me, drop significantly once the vocal joins in; the melody and performances in the choruses are just weak. The TULL-like passage around the 6:00 mark is its only saving grace. (17.25/20)

3. "Vacuo senso" (13:30) (27.25/30): - i. Prologo (3:35) (8.5/10) - ii. Dialogo (1:50) - gorgeous slow section with one of Alessandro's best vocals. (5/5) - iii. Nella rete dell'Inganno (3:05) - RENAISSANCE meets & plays COLTRANE's "My Favorite Things" (literally) and then turns into TRAFFIC jazz! Don Pullen! (4.75/5) - iv. Il risueglio di S (1:30) - some powerful IL BALLETTO bravura. (4.5/5) - v. Ascensione (3:10) all bass & 'tron Neo Prog cheese. Bring it home, boys! (even though it's been done a hundred times before). (4.5/5)

Total Time 42:41

Trying to overcome my usual biases against this band due to their past inconsistencies is a challenge--especially when the music on this album only serves to reinforce those biases. One GREAT song, two okay, all three long playing, two epic suites (my bandcamp version of "Vacuo senso" is 13:30.) Still, I have to agree with other reviewers that this band keeps getting better.

An excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection.

 S.E.I. by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.03 | 159 ratings

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S.E.I.
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by emisan

5 stars It seems that 2020 is a very good year for Italy. At least regarding the prog rock and more precisely, Rock Progressivo Italiano. Earlier this year we had the amazing "Sadako e le mille gru di carta" by LogoS and now it's time for S.E.I. to shine. La Maschera Di Cera gets better and better with every release and the latter one contains the band's most polished work. Astounding keyboards, delicate flute sounds, amazing vocals and the immortal mellotron are the key to success in RPI. And of course let's not forget about the ending of the album. When I first listened to "Il Grande Labirinto" I thought myself that you simply cannot have a better end for a great album. But hey, you can! S.E.I. ends equally impressive and it forces you to play the album again and again. Great album released in a great year for prog rock. Highly recommended 5-star album.
 S.E.I. by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.03 | 159 ratings

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S.E.I.
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by Squire Jaco

5 stars This'll be a quick review, but MAN! these guys are actually getting better and better!

When I first started getting into the band LA MASCHERA DI CERA about 10 years or so ago, I liked their style of Italian Prog, and have gotten every album from them since. I used to rate their early albums in the 3-1/2 to 4 star range. Then they took a little break before coming back with "Le Port Del Domani" in 2013, and I thought it was their best album yet; gave it 4-1/2 stars.

Then they took ANOTHER break and come back with this new album "S.E.I." (acronym for "Separazione / Egolatria / Inganno" or Separation / Self-worship / Deception). Phenomenal comeback album!! Better than ever, I say... This has everything any RPI lover could be looking for - warm Italian vocals, classic symphonic prog passages with plenty of mellotron and flute, melodic bass, absolutely fantastic keyboards, unique compositions. Just 3 long tracks over 42 minutes, but believe me, it is worth every minute they invest.

The ending to the album really struck me. I only had a digital version with no song titles while listening through the first time, but the fade out to the last track just reminded me of sort of a death march, but a hopeful and inspiring one, like up the steps to heaven or something. Lo and behold, I see now that the last section of that suite is called "Ascensione" - nailed it, gents!

Excellent, excellent album. I'm throwing 5 stars at this one, though my own early feelings are that this is 4-1/2... I'm rounding UP this time.

 Il Grande Labirinto by MASCHERA DI CERA, LA album cover Studio Album, 2003
4.07 | 195 ratings

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Il Grande Labirinto
La Maschera Di Cera Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

3 stars On this album La Maschera di Cera really set out their stall in terms of offering a distinctive, retro-progish take on the 1970s Italian prog sound. It obviously sounded authentic - they got the nod to do Le Porte del Domani as an official sequel to Felona e Sorona, after all - but in subsequent years I feel like this has been overshadowed by superior works from La Maschera. As well as the aforementioned Le Porte, this was followed by the masterful LuxAde, which remains my favourite album of theirs, and whereas that also ran to over an hour that managed to hold my interest much better than this piece, which in many ways is a dry run for LuxAde and doesn't quite fill its running time. There's a solid 40 minute album in here padded out just a little too long.
Thanks to ProgLucky for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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