ZARATHUSTRA

One of those legendary Italian one-shot album that is rightly regarded as a mini-masterpiece, Museo Rosenbach's sole official album must be in everyone's collection, should they have 10 Italian-prog albums in their shelves. This classic singer-led quintet presents an impressive symphonic prog, drenched in mellotron and other "vintage" keyboards. Based on a collage, the artwork is sufficiently hypnotizing visually to add some eeriness to their sonic meanderings to keep you fascinated.

Opening on the sidelong 5-movements 20-mins+ epic title track, the soundscape gently rise from nowhere and explodes into your ears after some 90 seconds or so. Reminiscent of Trespass or Cryme-era Genesis but with an Italian twist and certain unpredictability, you navigate in familiar waters of the classic-era prog. With a little imagination and The Gabe's voice, you could imagine that this would be a long-lost Genesis album session from early 72, even if there is a little more (often-tasteful) heroics. The flipside feature three shorter tracks, ranging from 4 to 8-mins+, where the feeling is a bit different, like the particularly energetic (read harder) Degli Uomini, where the guitar flexes its muscles. The longer Della Natura is more typically Italian-dramatics, mixed with some ELP/Banco moods and riffs. Again the relatively heaviness and abrupt breaks of this track contrasts with the finely-crafted epic on the other side. The closing Eterno Ritorno is much in the same vein of its two companion pieces, but I find it a little less refined, nd maybe the drop that fills the bucket, just reaching the saturation level.

As said above, Zarathustra is certainly one of the best albums to come from the peninsula, especially in the symphonic-prog genre, but it's not perfect either as the production is not up to UK standards and there are always the slightly excessive overflowings that come from that part of the continent