CINQUE

One of the prog masterpieces of the new millenium so far, CINQUE is prog with a capital P. It pays respect stylistically to famous 70s bands, such as Mahavishnu, Crimson, even ELP, without ever copying any of them. One of the most striking features here are the operatic vocals of Alberto Piras. They are an aquired taste (like with so many prog vocalists), but technically excellent and delivering so much emotion. For skeptics, listen to the vocal performance on Rhinoceros from the 5:00 mark. The lyrics are not really accessable for the average listener, as most of the album is sung in latin. But this language is very pleasing to the ears, perhaps even more so than Italian. The rest of the band plays excellently as well; guitarist is not very technical but he has a unique style, great rhythm chops, and uses his wah pedal in a rather complimentary way (I find many guitarists abuse this tool). The drummer has a very busy and jazzy style, one that manages to driving the music forward without interfering with it. And what can be said about the keyboard player? His first choice seems to be hammond, not rhodes as would be expected in a fusion oriented band. There is some great moog work too. Bass is fine, but it mostly just copies the guitar/keyboard riffs. All the compositions are excellent and the album as a whole is diverse. I think as Hybris was seen as the best album of the early 90's, this one should be seen as the best of 00's, at least so far I haven't encountered a better one.