IL PASSO DEL SOLDATO

WOW! This bombastic album was made in 1995, but the style involved is clearly around 1975, somewhere in Italy, where Italian symphonic progressive music was at its best! The band is obviously influenced by Italian progressive bands like Banco and Le Orme. However, they add early Rick Wakeman's elements in their music so that it is just unique and amazing! The style of the music cannot be completely described without mentioning the obvious ELP's influence of the 70's, especially taken from the genius of Keith Emerson.

This record is really vintage keyboards oriented: there are TONS of extremely dirty organ and crazy mini-moog, clearly reminding Rick Wakeman's "White Rock" and ELP's "Brain salad surgery" albums, among others. However, the Italian roots of the musicians is printed on the symphonic textures, on some classical piano parts and on the strong accent of the Italian lead vocals. There are a few parts where a discreet mellotron seems to occupy the background. The music is VERY structured and synchronized: the very elaborated drums and the bass follow well the extravagant keyboards. The last 2 minutes of "Il passo del soldato" is just JAW-DROPPING! A very strong point is the irreproachable sound, which enhances the overall artistic value of this album. This record is one of the best vintage progressive records of the 90's: with time, it should become a classic one at the same level as "Brain salad surgery" or "Banco". I have never seen a better album than this one to show a perfect balance between the Emerson's and the Wakeman's styles! Sincerely, how can I rate this album less than 5 stars? I wonder!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!