NICO, GIANNI, FRANK & MAURIZIO: CANTI D'INNOCENZA, CANTI D'ESPERIENZA...

PA has the feature to rate and rank how many albums one has reviewed per specific genre. And that's how I know that this is my 108th review for the Italian Symph genre. I just mentioned this since this album has little to do with the delicate and sophisticated style that I like so much.

Musicianship is of course above average, several songs being well crafted, that's for sure. But this band just doesn't belong to the style I praise so much. If you would ever like to listen to heavy Italian rock music, this is a good entry album. But don't expect great symphonic moments, nor subtle Italian music.

Heavy keyboards à la ELP, even heavier sounds à la Purple, some (very) high pitched vocals and complex music are at times a great combination like during the excellent and Crimsonesque " L' Amico Della Porta Accanto" which is by far my favourite song from this album. Intricate, heavy and at the same time so inventive. The Italian style stroke again.

"IBIS" is of course the heavy reincarnation of the "New Trolls" and therefore can belong either to the heavy prog genre (more of their essence) or to the Italian symph one. Since most of the songs featured on this album are very much more inspired of the heavy sounds, I can hardly rate this album with more than three stars. A good album indeed, but not at all fitting its own shoe in the Italian Symphonic genre.