NAUTILUS

Cellar Noise is a Symphonic Prog band from Milan, Italy, founded in 2013 by Niccolo Gallani and Alessandro Palmisano. Their love of progressive rock was the thing that gelled into a full band. Their 2nd album, released in September 2019 shows the band exploring some other avenues in their sound, but still coming back to the progressive sound when all is finished. "Nautilus" is this 2nd album which features 8 tracks with a total run time of over 52 minutes. The line up consists of the two founders Gallani on piano, organ, mellotron and synthesizer; and Palmisano on guitars. The other 3 members consist of Francesco Lovari on lead and backing vocals, Moris Bersan on bass and classical guitar, and Eric Bersan on drums and percussion. Guest Laura Meade also provides vocals for the track named "Her". All of the tracks are sung in English.

"The Creator" (8:07) crashes into existence with a very progressive and heavy beginning with fast moving drums and rousing guitars. Soon, the vocals come in, which right away reminds one of a lot of the Neo-prog bands out there. This track seems to be mostly concerned with a heavy sound however, not necessarily metal, but more of a Heavy prog sound. The music is also dynamic however, and the vocal melody is not typical pop/rock either, a little complex, but necessarily atypical. Almost halfway through, the mood becomes darker, a new melody emerges, and there are many words in there that your mother would not appreciate. Another major change comes along at 5 minutes when the music calms to a simple piano-led vocal. A nice emotional instrumental re-build later on brings the track to a satisfying conclusion pushed forward by synths and guitar. This track is an excellent and effective opener, for sure.

"Our Last Dance" (5:58) begins much calmer with soft guitar and sustained keys with mellow vocals. The drums soon bring in a moderately slow rhythm. The music begins to build at 2 minutes and gets a bit heavier and dramatic. What seems to have started as what might be an odd love song turns into one about a man on the edge of sanity in a mental hospital from the sounds of it, and then an awesome and very progressive instrumental break takes the song further away from pop. It's a nice clash of styles in a song that I had at first disregarded as a typical pop/rock song because of the seemingly corny title. The title track "Nautilus" (5:32) comes up next. This one does actually veer more into safe prog-pop territory. The lyrics, though, are surprisingly depressing for the more poppy and cheery sound that it brings out. The instrumental is pretty solid however, and that helps to make things more interesting. I must say the band can smoothly move from what starts out as something typical and develop it into something more interesting by the time the track is finished, and that is what happens here.

"Under My Command" (8:30) begins with a nice piano interlude that the vocals soon come in on. There is some nice emotion here and a bit of freedom is taken on the main melody allowing the vocalist to improvise on the melody a bit. There is more of a symphonic sound to this track provided by synth layers. The music starts to move a bit faster after a while as the drums become more active, but the smooth synth sounds continue. The melody becomes more dynamic not necessarily resting on a single theme. About halfway through, the music calms again to guitar chords and pensive synths. This rolls along instrumentally for a while at this slow tempo. Around 6 minutes, you can hear things building dramatically, then a sudden roll of drums brings in a heavier guitar-laden sound supporting a very dramatic and emotional vocal section.

"Leeches" (4:54) in contrast, builds to a quick and lively guitar-driven track that moves to the heavy prog sound. Chunky guitar riffs push the vocals to a rougher edge and the track is quite solid with some great tempo changes. The music really matches the overall negative vibe of the lyrics on this track. The synths that accompany the guitars emphasize the dark feeling of the track. "Her" (4:50) contrasts this track by moving to a soft and melancholic sound. A slow pensive tempo backs the soft guitar and sustained synths. Soon, guest vocalist Laura Meade adds her vocals to the track and give it the smooth softness that is needed here giving a nice degree of comfort to the dark lyrics. I wouldn't mind hearing more of her vocals as her voice is quite lovely and has a nice range. It is all followed up by an expressive electric guitar solo in the instrumental break.

"Omega" (12:05) takes us back into solid progressive territory again. It starts of with mysterious sounding piano notes playing in a minor key against sustained synths underneath it. The symphonic effect from the synths builds and then backs off again. Vocals start with a slow melody sung with light accompaniment, which builds back up again as the emotional level rises and then a sudden, solid increase of intensity brings in a powerful riff led by guitar and synth. An excellent guitar solo comes in after 3 minutes, then the music slows again with strong acoustic guitar chords and then a take over by the keys and synths bring it all back down, a pause, then boiling bass suddenly comes out of nowhere, and the power level shifts up about 5 notches as things get suddenly heavy and dark, not unlike a Porcupine Tree track with rousing guitar riffs, dark synth washes and progressive greatness. It all calms down again after 8 minutes and dark lyrics return with minimal accompaniment. There is another sudden build after another verse and the return of the vocals build it all to a major key shift that take the track to a different plane, and then it is all brought to a sudden and heavy progressive section that carries it all to a satisfying end. The final track here is the short "Relics" (2:41) which is the sound of drums fading in along with a piano and acoustic guitar playing a repeating riff while some other keys slowly add in layers and, in a way, it wraps it all up and then fades away slowly.

This is quite a satisfying sophomore album from this band that seems to be quite talented. There is a good variety here as the band explores dark themes against both heavy and soft moods, many times flowing from one style to another seamlessly. All of the areas they explore end up leaving you with a collection of excellent tracks that overall leave you satisfied by the end. The overall sound is more on the heavy side of prog with occasional symphonic effects brought in to keep the sound from being too predictable and giving some tracks additional atmosphere. Sometimes, the music doesn't quite match the lyrical content, but that is okay, not really much of a bother. The album really does come close to being a 5 star album, but just doesn't quite reach the essential stage, so it is definitely a strong 4-star album. Nevertheless, it is defiantly an excellent album that would easily fit into anyone's progressive library and possibly even become a favorite. Very impressive and highly recommended.