A PIEDI NUDI

With their namesake album, Italian band A Piedi Nudi debuted in the musical business as a powerful ensemble who created a harsh, complex prog, filled with lots of symphonic nuances and Gothic-like textures, and delivered with polished proficiency. Hard rocking guitar riffs and solos, delirious keyboard layers and leads, a potent rhythm section, and a passionate tenor: these are the ingredients of the A Piedi Nudi prog offering. To a certain degree, their style is reminiscent of some of their legendary compatriots on the heavier side of prog: Alphataurus, Biglietto per l'Inferno, Museo Rosenbach. Now, mentally picture a combination of all three of them, plus a touch of 73-74 King Crimson, and an ounce of that special prog metal spice - this pretty much draws an accurate description of the album's overall sound. The resulting repertoire is richly melodic and full of energetic fire, but lacking some inspirational magic. It is nothing out of these guys' reach, as their next two recordings were to show in following years, but by now the repertoire becomes a bit monotonous during the whole sequence: clearly, this is not a case of lack of imagination, but maturity, so after all this flaw is not so serious, all things considered. 'Introduzione', 'Il Duello' and 'Epilogo', being the longest tracks, are the ones that steal the limelight due to the level of complexity construed in both melody and structure. Among the most concise numbers, 'Un Giorno dal Cielo', 'Ritratto' and 'La Cattura' are the catchiest ones, built on a hard rock foundation, with a Gothic-like twist that allows some symphonic splendour enter and add some slightly disturbing chiaroscuro in order to create some emotional intensity. This same emotional intensity happens to be enhanced in the most melancholy tracks, 'Soliloquio' and 'E' Morto il Re' - had these two 3+ minute numbers been expanded a bit longer, perhaps their full potential would have been worked out more conveniently. All in all, this is a very good album that has to be appreciated mostly as an anticipation of greater things to come in the spectacular 'Creazione' and 'Eclissi'. but those are different stories to be reviewed somewhere else. So my real rating for this one is 3 1/2 stars.

... Buckle your seat belts... "A Piedi Nudi" are definitely an acquired taste, but once you have got their music in your soul they might just stick. That was certainly the case for me in that it took a few good listens before I fully caught the full appreciation for their music. Without a question this band like to get into the harder edged side of prog but never get caught into that nasty prog metal genre !. A PIEDI NUDI are a KING CRIMSON influenced band who like to create aggressive keyboard and guitar driven melodies. Not much room for negotiation on this one. After you get past the shock factor this band create some great grooves and write some pretty interesting songs along the way.

A fantastic band coming from Italy,A PIEDI NUDI draw their influences from every possible progressive rock style.They still remain among the most cult names of modern progressive rock due to their original sound.They debuted in 1994 with their eponymous album,later re-released by Mellow Records.A PIEDI NUDI seem to lean towards the heavier side of progressive rock,reminding mostly of mid-70's KING CRIMSON or resembling to the heavy side of Italian prog (IL BALLETO DI BRONZO,BIGLIETTO PER L'INFERNO etc.).The compositions are balanced between complicated guitar playing/haunting organ work and lyrical themes,sung in a dark poetic way by Mirko Schiesaro.In their less complex parts,you can taste some really nice groovy bass lines,interesting drumming and distinctive synth-work.I would say that ''A piedi nudi'' is a quite respectful work,deeply based on 70's prog tradition,filled with great rhythm-parts,complex passages and obscure vocals.Recommended for fans of dark yet inventive progressive rock music!

Hmmmm......... An acquired taste indeed.

A Piedi Nudi debuted with this album. An album whose sound is very much on the darker end of the Rock Progressivo Italiano scene. There are enough chugging metal guitars to go around here and the vocals is leaning towards power metal too. The rest of the instrumentations is vintage Rock Progressivo Italiano though and that balances things out. Well, almost.

The music is a mix of heavy and melodic. There are some good to very good melody lines scattered around here. This being a debut album, I don't get the feeling neither the band or their music is the finished article. But this is still a good album from a good band. I am not overawed by this album though and I expect someting far better on their second album.

3 stars

You might know that I am an addicted ISP fan.

When I listened to this band, I had quite mixed feelings: great symphonic moments at times, combined with some devastating metal portions; the whole being topped with great vocal harmonies ("Colore Viola").

This band is not one of the most beloved ones on PA. But so are many of my beloved Italian flavours. The music displayed is often on the heavy side like during the title track; but this is not too outrageous as far as I am concerned: the pumping organ is quite alright and the psyche mood overall is rather encouraging, even if it sounds quite outdated (although this record was released in 94).

But this is a global feeling. Most of this album sounds as if it was taken out the early seventies (including production, unfortunately). There are really few songs with potential. Most are rather average ("Il Sabba" or "Il Castello").

The heavy side is back again with "Aberla Tra Le Braccia", but this can hardly bear the prog flag. The music sounds too much old fashioned anyway. If it were recorded in the late sixties my opinion would have been different?

As such, this album is not worth more than three stars. Be aware though that this rating is on the upper edge for this Italian / metal combo. Even the long "Il Duelo" can't cope with the giants of the genre.

This album sounds as déjà vu by all means. Even if "La Cattura" is a superb, upbeat and heavy prog song: it is the best available as far as I am concerned on this album. It is a solid heavy song indeed. Full of maestria: being the beat, the great organ or the huge guitar. It is THE highlight for sure. The closing numbers are just fillings even if "Epilogo" shares passionate vocals with dark music. Three stars overall is my rating. This is quite a bizarre album.

This italian band from the '90's A Piedi Nudi is their name is quite unknown and aswell has a very short career who lasted until 1999. First album self titled issued in 1994 at Mellow records is a heavy work indeed, combining elements from '70's heavy prog with their own twist. Some arrangements remind me a lot of King Crimson even Campo Di Marte in places. Fury guitar parts with keyboards added in the mix, overall is a pretty decent album but far from being something of a real intrest. Some decent vocal parts, but in some moments Mirko Schiesaro sounds very dull and unintresting. All pieces has same flavour heavy prog all the way, 3 stars is best I can give, really.