IL BACIO DELLA MEDUSA

The first minutes from the opening track are quite hard to digest as far as I'm concerned: super heavy music with poor vocals. Little to do with the Italian genre I love. But after some time, the lead vocals turns out softer and more passionate, which saves the bill. Even if "Requiem" ends up in the vein of the start with a ferocious guitar solo.

One needs to reach the third song to finally get on his marks. The groove bass still conveys a heavy sound but a rather contrasting flute play makes the whole of this introduction much lighter. Still, vocals are average but, on the contrary, the electric guitar play is quite impressive: melodic at times and wild during others. The closing section is a mix of jazzy / bluesy textures: so "Scorticamento Di Marsia" has led us through quite a number of musical genres! Not bad after all.

Although this band is currently active, most of their songs sound quite vintage ("Il Vino" but not only). There is also some truly symphonic Italian passages, which are the moments I prefer by far. My favourite track is the beautiful "Cantico". Sweet vocals this time, and again some very pleasant fluting are highlighting this excellent song which leans of course to heavy territories for the "finale".

The closing song is just over twelve minutes long and also offers several musical genres (even some flamenco blend is featured). The whole is quite upbeat, at times dark but overall, it is quite enjoyable. Excellent bass play as well.

After all, this band should have been catalogued into the heavy-prog genre. It would have been obvious to anyone which type of music could have been expected here.

A good debut album: three stars.