AVENOTH

This album came as a surprise for me from that Italian band that has been influenced as much by the British sound than the Italian old bands. The Italian vocals are not dominating this symphonic Prog Rock style with long instrumental sections. The instrumental Ouverture set the tone for the journey of 78 minutes concept in the world of La Bocca Della Verità. "Contro Luna e Luce" is bringing the acoustic guitar and the vocals with a song that show also a more electric side of the music. And then we have a 17 minutes suite where you can hear the big production with some clear bass and drums that bring together all other instruments into a multi-movement song that goes through different moods and showing influences from the acoustic side of Genesis and Pink Floyd and the electric style of Spock's Beard. The keyboards and the electric guitar have a lot of space to shine in those instrumental sections. "Avenoth" continue where we left off with some beautiful guitar duel and showing a band that can play some heavier music. "La Festa" is an exotic instrumental track with some exotic drums/guitars parts giving a joyful atmosphere to the song. The 2 minutes "Antico" is the perfect acoustic guitar song! "La Deportazione degli Avenothiani" starts with a lot of energy, a guitar high in the mix and some impressive keyboards parts that is not without influences from the first Marillion period. "Perduto Avenoth" is a melancholic song inspired by a popular classical song with a gentle guitar ending "Focus" style. This 78 minutes album has no weak moment, the songwriting is of high caliber as the playing. No Prog Rock fans should pass this one.