ZARATHUSTRA

Even though there are already so many reviews on this album, I still felt the need to add another praising one. This album quite clearly for me stands as one of the finest bits not only of Italian Progressive Rock but of Prog in general. The music is at times subtle (e.g. in Il Re De ieri or L'ultimo uomo) and at times rumbling (e.g. in Della Natura) in an alltogether very harmonious mix. the music is nver predictable or boring and yet quite accessible, which is not easy to achieve over the course of an entire album. But there is not one point on the album where it becomes borng, redundant or uninteresting. Instead, the album beautifully progresses and shifts easily from gloomy to more melodic moods, such as in Il Re De Ieri. It is an album to listen to closely, preferably in one bit.

The musicianship is top-notch and Galifi's vocals are very passionate and powerful, yet at times also subtle as in Superuomo. The production is good though of course the drums sound a bit flat by today's standard (here it is indeed interesting to compare the more aggressive but very clear drum sound of the rerecording from 2012). But Pit Corradi's keyboard and organ sound is absolutely fabulous and really adds a great quality to the overall sound.

The lyrics are very interesting and at times quite complicated. Surely, however, they were not fascist or right-wing oriented (as the band also makes clear in the booklet of their rerecording). In fact, Nietzsche himself strongly opposed nationalist and xenophobic tendencies, which should make it clear that the concept of the Superhuman is not meant to be the fascist idea it was unfortunately later made to be. And I believe that this album's lyrics are not meant to represent this either. They are devoted to the philosophy and in my opinion add to the quality of this album as they are very thoughtful (a good translation can be found on arlequins.it).

It is a shame that Museo Rosenbach did not produce more material in the 70s as composer Moreno seems to have been in a very inspired phase when he wrote this album: there are simply no musical flaws I could point to. But then, maybe it is the singularity of this album that adds even more to the name of Museo Rosenbach. Do yourself a favour and get this album, which is luckily now widely available in various formats (CD, LP and digital).