PETALI DI FUOCO

I heard about this band through some friends in the ProgBrasil forum. You know, for some the italian prog bands were always very popular among prog circles in my country since the early 70´s, so it was no news when I got this message praising this band. Nearly all italian groups are highly regarded here. And I´m not one to like all of them. I´m kind of old fashioned, I guess. Modern italian bands tend to sound a bit too alternative for my taste. Only recently I decided to give this group a spin and I was quite impressed. They are indeed progressive in the truly sense of the word: very symphonic, very melodic and at the same time quite daring.

They do pay homage to the great groups of the 70´s (PFM, Banco, e Orme, etc) and yet they are not exactly retro. The modern elements of their sound are put in favor of the symphonic rock they play. Their tunes are strongly rooted in the long and melodic italian tradition of their popular and classical music. Of course they do have influences of other great prog giants of the day (the Gabriel era Genesis is the most obvious one, but there are some King Crimson traces too) The musicians also added generous doses of jazz here and there for good effect. Like all the classic bands of that country, this band is gifted with terrific songwriting skills: all the ten tracks are equally powerful, varied and inspired.

Petali Di Fuoco was produced by Franz Di Cioccio (yes, the drummer/vocalist from PFM himself!) and he did a great job here. His work enhanced the extraordinaire performances of all musicians involved, but specially of vocalist Alessandro Corvaglia. The guy lives up to Italy´s fame for producing great singers. He simply steals the show most of the time not only with his excellent voice but also because of his passionate and convincing delivering. Another great featiure here is the massive use of vintage sounding keyboards (Hammond organ, moogs, mellotron and Fender Rhodes electric piano). The arrangements are tasteful and the presence of some brilliant flute also brings back memories of a time when those were the few prog bands that were making excellent music outside England. My only criticism about this CD is the fact that I think guitarrist Matteo Nahum is a bit underused here, He deserved a little bit more room to show off his fine solos.

I´ve been listening to this album for days and I just can´t get tired of it. A real true (new) prog gem. I´m looking forward to hear their next (and previous) releases.

Rating: 4.5 stars. Highly recommended for all symphonic prog lovers in general and fans of the italian branch in particular.