IL TRONO DEI RICORDI

The 90's were not good to a lot of sub-genres including RPI. Yet there are gems scattered throughout this decade from Italy with NUOVA ERA's "Il Passo Del Soldato" album from 1995 being the crown jewel. The nasty organ and powerful Italian vocals recall some of the legends of the past. IL TRONO DEL RICORDI formed in 1991 and released a 24 minute EP in 1993 as a four piece and all instrumental. For their only studio album released the next year in 1994 they would add a vocalist who will sing in english and he sounds a lot like Gabriel. They also brought in a new drummer as the original drummer exchanges his drum sticks for electronics and effects.

So a six piece here, and the two keyboardists mixed this record, and I should mention the bass player adds sax. There are orchestral bits which I assume are created by the electronics, but they take away from this album in my opinion. There's also a classical bent to the sound with the keyboards at times. Bombast too.

This is a Neo Prog album though not an RPI recording. That was clear during my very first spin of this album back in the summer of 2019. And this is where my expectations were crushed because I saw this as a high rated RPI album released during a pretty bleak time. But it's Neo Prog! And that's okay, I do have some favourites, but no this is not another NUOVA ERA trying to revive the RPI flame. Still, there so much to like here. I get the high ratings but for me 3 stars is just right.