AVENOTH

On this debut album, La Bocca Della Verità certainly do a fine job of harking back to prog sounds of yesteryear, but the particular combination they hark back to is an intriguing one. Many of the original wave of Italian prog bands emerged in the 1970s were inspired in part by the roaring success of the likes of Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generator early in the decade - Italy having enthusiastically embraced those bands back when they were still cult acts in their homeland. Add in other inspirations like ELP and local musical traditions, and the RPI of the era tended to be a close cousin to the symphonic prog other nations were producing.

It was much more atypical, back in the day, to hear an Italian prog band taking a lot of influences from the more dreamy and mellow end of space rock, a la Pink Floyd - but that's except what La Bocca do here on the opening track, establishing a spacey tone which remains present as an undercurrent throughout the rest of this sci-fi concept album even as other influences creep in here and there. There's a few keyboard moments reminiscent of Tony Banks at the height of Genesis, guitar that shows the influence of the likes of David Gilmour, Andrew Latimer, or Steve Rothery, and a blending of influences which reminds me of some of the gentler, spacier moments of IQ (think Frequency period especially) or latter-day Marillion.

Apparently, La Bocca started out in 2001 as a covers act, drawing their repertoire from the best of Italian and British prog. 15 years spent honing your craft before you put out a debut album of original material is perhaps a little extreme, but the results pay off here, with the album being a highly enjoyable exercise that takes inspiration from decades of prior acts to yield a distinct sound of its own.