ARIES

I quite like the works of this prolific Italian musican. The only project I couldn't get into was laZona but from Finnistere, Hostsonaten and my fave one La Maschera Di Cera, most of his output was quite remarkable.

The music which is available through Aries is much more accessible Morning Song and vocals are sung in English. Most of the songs are on the soft edge, and feature delicious female vocals. Simona Angieloni is really the highlight of this album: her crystal voice sounds as a jewel to my ears and combines perfectly with these sweet piano lines (Coming Back To Life). It is concluded with an extraordinary and dynamic guitar solo.

One of the epics starts as a Renaissance track: fine piano lines to back another emotional vocal part from Simona. But this song won't be a long and tranquil journey. It hardens substantially for a couple of minutes which breaks the overall mellow mood available so far. These parts almost sound as Crimson: heavy and dark. Great combination! This is a highlight.

The short has a definite Mostly Autumn structure: a quiet start which evolve nicely into a fantastic guitar solo as if Josh was around.

The second epic includes another vocal feat from Simona. Her voice is really beautiful and charming. The only minus point of this song, is that it sounds a bit too much of the same and it doesn't really kick off (only during short breaks). The whole is nice, well performed of course but I would have liked to get some more variety to be fully captivated. Do I need to say that Fabio Centarini is absolutely wonderful again?

This album features beautiful and melodic music, both vocals and guitar are phenomenal but song writing could have been more diverse. Seven out of ten.