THE SPAGHETTI EPIC

This is the second epical treat from Colossus I bought some years ago. I bought it around the same time as Colossus of Rhodes so that gave me every opportunity to compare them. After many listenings I consider this one slightly better. I will describe each epic below.

Haikara starts off with a mellow vocal tune accompanied by a harmonica which reminds us of course of the famous Once upon a time in the West movie from 1973. Doesn't sound like Ennio Morricone by the way, this is prog we are used to. I already knew Haikara slightly from the Kalevala project but that was just one shorter song so I'm not really familiar with the band. Seems to be an interesting eclectic progband (according to progarchives). I can hear what that's coming from, also this epic sounds pretty eclectic (if that's some kind of sound at all !) and then I mean, music without simple straightforward melody usually containing dissonances, at least that's what it often is in real terms. Anyway, despite the fact I like straightforward melodies, I can't say I dislike this epic. The build up is very good and makes this epic more than listenable. It will never be my favourite epical track of all time, but then again: I have an enormous lot of good epics in my personal collection so that doesn't have to be a downside. The song closes with the same tune as the beginning to complete the circle of this track. Composition and build up are better here than the music itself but still I think it deserves 3,75 stars.

Randone is a typical Italian prog band and that is what shines through obviously in this epic. The composition is not very memorable here I'm afraid. It's the usual build up as with many epics, many alternations and moodswings. Randone uses several themes and there's even a bit of Bach's Toccata detectable if you listen carefully. Nice epic but nothing mindblowing. 3 stars.

Tilion is my least favourite track. It's supposed to be Italian symfo but especially in the beginning it sounds more like psychedelic/space to me. At 3:45 the more normal music takes its turn. But to me that is not yet something near nice let alone great music. In contrast to Haikara I have sincere doubts about the quality although I have no doubt there could be proggers that like this one. Just not me. The vocals are at least debatable and also the music is not in one passage anything of my liking (except maybe the piano at ± 10.00 but that's not even for one minute in length). Second half of the song is a bit better by the way. Matter of personal taste of course, don't let it bother them, but I can give no more than 2 stars.

La Voce del vento starts the second and better disc of the two for my preference. The vocals are by Guy Manning who also appears in Parallel or 90 degrees and The Tangent. The man has an unmistakable voice hasn't he ? The music has some resemblance with the Tangent (flute a.o.) and this is a very good epical track because the instrumental as well as the compositional aspect of this track is of a very high level. This makes me decide for 4,25 stars.

Taproban is an Italian symphonic progband and that's pretty logical to invite at least a few Italian symfo bands for the spaghetti epic. This band and track is much more of my liking than Tilion. The track starts with some interesting keyboards taken over by the organ after several minutes. Some more minutes later a very impressive "march-like" tune sets in to culminate after a minute and a half in a ballad like half vocal/half piano passage working very nicely as well. This epic is at least as good as the previous one. I give it 4,5 stars.

Last but certainly not least is Trion, surprisingly a dutch symphonic prog band. The track starts with keyboards followed by a sort of church organ, then the two combined before after 5,35 the guitar adds lustre to the already smooth play, then a quiet down after 8,30, a beautiful piano tune is next, then guitars and an organ making the thing somewhat rougher, then the keys return more fiercely taken over by melodic guitar (until 13.00). Transition to a melodic multi instrument passage with a quiet passage, at 17.00 guitar returns to play a sort of theme till the end of the track. The last few minutes also bring out the atmosphere that is required for a spaghetti epic, in the end resulting in a great melodic guitar for the grand finale, a worthy showstopper. 4,5 stars.

Thanks to the second disc I think it's fair to reward this project with 4 stars (3 vs 4,4 stars so rounded up from 3,7).