AREKNAMÉS

Call me old fashioned if you like but ain't these guys a bit...old fashioned? I mean who fills a whole CD with memorable hooks delivered with crunchy gusto these days?, if that were not damning enough, they have the temerity to flaunt excellent song writing skills in our faces without so much as a 'by your leave' with the final straw being that arsenal of mouth watering 70's timbres to draw upon, well that just takes the custard cream by being just so retro..Even Mrs L doesn't hate this:

Very atmospheric and spooky

So not creepy like you think VDGG is then?

Nah, not creepy but they need to cheer up a bit. Go and get drunk or laid lads jeez...Did Albert Speer design the cover?

I was surprised to learn that Areknames are from Italy, as there are precious few traces of the proggy lineage of their fellow countrymen i.e. the writing is very far removed from RPI and has a closer kinship with that of the heavy psychedelia of Crazy World era Arthur Brown, an early Sabbath with a wider compass of arithmetic and Atomic Rooster with viagra in the chickenfeed. Add in a sprinkling of Cure atmospherics, Black Widow/Jacula panto gothic, Devil Doll vocal theatrics, Genesis dynamics of pace and don't be stingy with the Chateau de Hammill to bring things to a satisfying and dizzy head.

Perhaps the one barb that may be continually thrown at this band is how much they owe to the past as a source of their inspiration but compared to someone like those shameless plagiarists Black Bonzo, this criticism would be rather wide of the mark and reveal more about the accusers than the accused i.e. of blaming the paint factory for the graffiti. It does seem clear that Michele Epifani is a big Peter Hamill/VDGG fan but apart from the verbatim organ quote from the Generator catalogue on the opening number A Day Among Four Walls the influence is mercifully restricted to that of style rather than content.

However, in deference to Mrs L (or Tina: There Is No Alternative) the track titles indicate that the lads do need to get themselves out a bit more. How about bowling? - Wasted Time - Down - Season of Death - Boredom and in the case of the latter rib tickler, a word to the wise fellas, don't fall victim to self fulfilling prophecies by playing into your worst critics hands eh? You don't deserve it.

This is a mighty fine album that took me completely by surprise, as my own lazy association of ideas deemed that the faux Bosch imagery of the artwork was indicative of another morbid self pitying sludgefest of forgettable fuzz laden riffery. (Have I just unwittingly defined progressive metal ?) Not so, as Areknames represents a very independently minded creation that flies in the face of much of the prevailing Zeitgeist of contemporary prog and should be cherished for such thrillingly wanton perversity alone.

Wanna go bowling hun?

Only if I get to use your head

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