MERRY GO ROUND

I guess it was a long and controversial way to get this Italian band into the Archives (I received my reviewer's copy already 1½ years ago). Their music is plain old school heavy rock with a very ballsy female vocalist; that they ended up in the Crossover Prog subgenre instead of Heavy Prog quite clearly indicates that the teams were confronted with the difficult question whether this is progressive enough.

Many of you would easily guess on which label this band is signed. Yeah, Black Widow. I've had the pleasure of getting to know plenty of the label's releases. Most rewarding ones represent the RPI scene that really seems to be vital nowadays. Sadly this English-language band (rooted in the 80's) has nothing to do with RPI. The music rocks hard and is loaded with electric guitar, roaring Hammond and vintage Mellotron, and some Moog too. As you probably know from my reviewing history, I'm not very much into heavy rock in general. That makes me not the most qualified reviewer, and my speculations about the appeal of the music for the friends of the genre are on unsolid ground. But I do believe that many afficionados of old school heavy rock might be quite thrilled by this album. Does it sound 70's? Sure. The overall sound, thanks to the dominance of Hammond and Mellotron, is pretty good and strongly related to Heavy Prog.

Three out of eleven tracks are covers: 'Free Ride' is credited to Collins/Turner, 'Indian Rope Man' to Havens/Price/Roth, and 'Friday the 13th' to D. Crane. These names don't ring a bell to me, and nor do these songs notably stick out from the whole. Generally speaking, I felt more positive during the beginning of the album, and simply began to get tired of it. Especially of the yelling and overacting vocals of Martina Vivaldi, who clearly attempts to be the toughest guy of the pack. She's not as terrible as Rose Podwojny of Sandrose (1972) but she lacks the personal charm of female vocalists of vintage bands such as Babe Ruth, Affinity, Curved Air, Earth & Fire or Jefferson Airplane. Another problem is the lack of memorable compositions. Interestingly 'To Die of Fear' is musically more restrained and acoustic but it's ruined by the ballsier vocal lines. There's an instrumental hidden track in the end, a pity it's not a proper track. Some more instrumental and more dynamic approach would have done good for this album.