THE ENLIGHTENING MARCH OF THE ARGONAUTS

After the succesful effort of the rock opera ''Abraham'',key minds of QUASAR LUX SYMPHONIAE Paolo Paroni and Roberto Sgorlon continued on working on the band's second album.For this release bassist Italo Cigainero got off the board with new member Paolo Maestrutti jumping on,while female vocalist Annalisa Malvasio kept her place on the line-up.Now, with a much reduced personel,QUASAR LUX SYMPHONIAE presented their sophomore album ''The Enlightening March of the Argonauts'' in 1996,again on Music is Intelligence.

Not much have changed since the group's debut two years ago.''The waning season'' opens greatly much in THE ENID vein with nice Classical parts and Sgorlon delivers some fine HACKETT-ish guitar work,but the vocals seem over the top due to their heavy theatrical approach.''Prayers of the Highland'' is a some sort of a prog-ballad with good semi- acoustic passages,balanced vocals and a great solo at the end,which hopefully could last forever.Is it Robert John Godfrey opening for ''The Resonance of the Throne''...No,it's Paolo Paroni offering great classical piano parts in the vein of THE ENID,encouraged later by the operatic vocals of Malvasio,before the track turns to a symphonic heaven full of grandiosity with sharp synths and fantastic guitars close to MINIMUM VITAL's Thierry Payssan.Excellent!

Unfortunately on ''The Punishment of the Submerged'' the band spoils its good image.Weak vocals and an awful rhytmic rock tune isn't what I expect from them and what saves the track is its great middle section with light interplays between the acoustic guitars and the electric jazzy ones.THE ENID's ghost is back on the long ''Five Fathers Resurrection'',where Paroni's dreamy classical piano parts play a dominant role along with his flashy and dramatic synthesizers,interupted only at parts by Sgorlon's balanced voice and his well-crafted solos.Awesome and highly emotional stuff once again!A symphonic/spacey intro opens for the eponymous track with keyboards/synths creating a cosmic yet classical 4-min. long atmosphere.For the rest of the track Paroni takes over with his piano,accompanied by Sgorlon's relaxed vocals,before the GENESIS--like electric solo outro where Sgorlon saves the best for last!

Having a better vocalist or simply leaving the fourth track out of the album,''The Enlightening March of the Argonauts'' would easily flirt with the ''masterpiece'' consideration...but again four magnificent tracks out of possible six are too many to ignore this album.If you love the Classical side of Prog filled with atmospheric harmonies and a grandiose approach to melody,then this album is certainly your thing.Personally I had to listen to such a good blending of Classical music and prog rock since my time listening to THE ENID's albums.Well done!

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