CHOCOLATE KINGS

After their peak, the slow downfall? Well, I believe an album like The World Became The World would be a hard act to follow anyway, as were the previous ones too. But now the band seemed to be trying to make albums to please the international market. Or so it seemed to me at the time. Maybe they were simply looking for something different. Anyway, the resulting album is not bad at all, I like it very much, but it is also not par to their previous two, at least.

Also the inclusion of singer Bernardo Lanzetti was not a move for the better. The guy is good, but sounds too much like Peter Gabriel, including many of his maneirisms. The musicians in the band had handled the vocal duties up till then and did a fine job. If they had to get another lead singer they should have chosen somebody else, and I´m sure Italy had plenty of better and more original vocalists.

As for the songs themselves they are good, if not exceptional. It looked like the band was losing the strong sense of direction they always had up till then. No wonder this would be the last album to feature original founder member Pagani. The playing in general is a little more restrained and less adventurous here too. Future releases were uneven and would further show the decline of Italy´s finest prog band ever. Highlights are the clever title track and the opener From Under.

Conclusion: a good album, but hardly essential. 3 stars.