LE RADICI DEL MALE

Italy keeps producing strong new prog acts! This sextet, translated as Poison Tree, have recorded their debut in Florence. The instrumental music has almost a Gothic-like dark atmosphere, but in an elegant manner, having very little to do with heavy rock style. One may get associations towards many directions. First, quite expectedly (as the founding members have mentioned horror movies as their inspiration), Italian dark prog classics such as GOBLIN or JACULA / ANTONIUS REX, even though the playing is more modern and tighter. Furthermore, I think the Hungarian SOLARIS have made rather similar strong and melodic instrumental prog with art music flavour.

The group features viola and flute players - and the latter cannot avoid the comparisons to Ian Anderson on the fourth, rocking track 'Un Altro Giorno di Terrore'. The intensity of some compositions remind me of the Finnish group Magyar Posse. Surely there are also more delicate nuances, especially on 'Presenze dal Pasato'. It's worth noting how full-bred and democratic the band sound is (another feature shared with Goblin); no virtuotic competition at sight. Only the 12-minute closing track 'Al di La del Sogno...l'Incubo Riaffiora' with its choir-like synth layers gets a bit too pathetic. The relatively short album offers a spell-binding listening experience.