THE WOOD OF TALES

Back in 1987, the Sicilian band MALIBRAN was born. In the beginning, the Catania natives took off particularly far from the progressive rock tendencies, where a very metal-sound orientation predominated all over their compositions and arrangements. It wasn't until 1989 and during a Prog Festival organized in Rome, when MALIBRAN finally started to set off among the prog world along huge bands of the size of LEVIATHAN, EDITH and NOTTURNO CONCERTANTE. After this mega-show and judging by the response of the fans to the band, they finally produced their first album which was released in 1990 on the Pegaso Records label. Later on, the now seventies-oriented style band released the incredible masterpiece presented as "the best Italian album since 1977", "Le Porte del Silenzio", where MALIBRAN conquered their place among the best three Italian bands of the 90's with FINISTERRE and NUOVA ERA.

Out of curiosity, is how I discovered MALIBRAN. "The Wood of Tales" is an overlooked album, that could easily be measured up to the instrumentation quality and strong composition of "Le Porte del Silenzio", but due the fact it is indeed the band's debut album, it lacks of a deserved recognition and fully acceptance. In that context, is why I firstly wanted to upload my review on "Le Porte del Silenzio", to create a wider panorama where comparisons could be included and counterpoints could be dissipated. It was useful as well because it grew higher expectations on the fans, and in that order, I hoped most of the now MALIBRAN fans could feel the proximity of discovering a brand new band for them.

"The Wood of Tales" is a sea full of complexities and simplicities. Why? Because it's got it all, so you can continuously question yourself why of the surprising displays of geniality on unpredictable conversations between an intrepid flute and a ruthless guitar that sounds off almost disturbing. The opening song of this album named after the band, contains the precise amount of eerie ingredients to avoid you from leaving your seat, warming you up for what's to come (at this point, I must say Giuseppe SCARAVILLI sings spectacularly clear in English. That's a plus for any foreign band which is constantly struggling to remain universal).

Giancarlo CUTULI and Benny TORRISI take away exceptionally the self-titled piece for almost nine minutes, being inspirationally interrupted by Jerry LITRICO's astonishing guitar managing and neat drum performing by Alessio SCARAVALLI. This instrumental suite is beautifully executed from beginning to end, proving that they could be catalogued among the Italian greatest musicians. When moving on to "Sarabanda", you and your ears can realize musical purity comes in a MALIBRAN shape, here you will be able to contemplate the difficulty of playing an acoustic guitar so rapidly and impetuous that it'll make you ask for seconds.

"Pyramid's Street" is the suitable excuse for Giuseppe SCARAVALLI to sweat emotiveness and delicacy throughout his voice while he's having a short conversation with the intertwining flute that flows all over the album. The climax of this suite is represented in a beautiful encounter between the flute that turns quite charming at the pure Arabic style and a echoing guitar that overtakes every now and then to Giuseppe's voice. The lyrics may be repetitive here, but the music floating around them is unarguably variant. The inevitable end comes when we catch up with "Prelude", an indisputable heartbreaking -almost epical- song that evokes great unfelt feelings, that brings out the melodic in you and that will irremediably turn your thoughts against each other. In here, you will experience a certain turn of fate concerning the lyrical composition, but the music accompanying the vocals is outstanding as the rest of the album.

A critical point of departure to compare works to come from most of the Italian bands and many others involved in the art rock, "The Wood of Tales" is the debut album from an underrated band that's certainly deserving of applause and recognition. MALIBRAN will clearly appeal to Italian prog rock fans and to fearless proggers that find in curiosity their source of personal reward. Extremely recommended!