THIRD EYE LIGHT

I heard about this italian group in the Prog Brasil site. For some reason the italian prog scene was always popular among progheads in my country since the 70´s. Third Eye Light is their sophmore release and came after a very long absence (around 19 years!) when founder members Edmondo Romano and Alessandro Serri had left to form The Black Veil in the mid 90´s. I haven´t heard their debut in 1991 to compare to this one, but let me tell you something: this CD is BEAUTIFUL! it took me some time to write about it because I kept hearing again and again.

It is obvious that the band has strong influences of those great prog acts that came from Italy in the height of the prog movement almost 30 years ago (PFM, Banco, Le Orme, etc), but their sound is not retro. In fact, they put enough modern elements (plus some doses of folk) here to make a sound of their own. Most of the time the music is laid back and melodic, although there are some heavier moments too. The tracks are all very good and quite varied, but some parts like the semi instrumental title track, Rain Street 19 and Peggy, they reached that moment when the melody transcends genres to produce something that´s really sublime. Those 3 songs are worth the price of the CD. Fantastic electric guitar and flute solos, fine keyboards and strong songwriting skills are Eris Pluvia strong points. The vocals are good, although their english comes with a heavy italian accent that might annoy some (but not me). Production is excellent.

The only down side is the record´s short running time (only 44 minutes, we want more!). In some tunes I had the feeling the band could have developed the song into something longer or so it seems. Yet Third Eye Light is a very strong come back, one of the best releases of 2010 and I really hope they don´t take that long to produce a follow up, even if, in this case, it was well worth the wait. Wonderful italian symphonic rock that will please anyone who enjoys good music. Rating: 4,5 stars. Highly recommended.