PALEPOLI

In the development towards metal, some bands should be mentioned: the Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc. King Crimson did a first try of introducing progressive metal with the Larks Tongues in Aspic - and I thought that this record was really inspired by that record untill my brother Friso mentioned that this record came out one year earlier than the Larks Tongues. After I had overcome this big shock, I reallised that this record could be seen as a first try to introduce really heavy distorted guitars in progressive rock.

Palepoli begins with some flutes and lyrics what get's a bit the atmosphere of a marketplace. This atmosphere does continually change to nice harmonies or the earlier mentioned heavy parts. These parts are all accompanied with enthusiastic Italian lyrics and with some avant- garde elements now and than. Especially on the first side Osanna shows really much inspiration and blows of many different themes.

The flute parts do sometimes look a bit alike Ian Andersons flutesession but also have some original soundings. The heavy guitar parts belong to my favorite parts of this record.

Side one really deserves five stars in my opinion. Side two however does remind me too much about King Crimsons early efforts (especially In the Wake of Poseidon). While I'm a real fan of King Crimson, I'm a bit (not much!) disapointed about the similarities. It looks alike the King, but is just not that good.

Because of the mediocre production (this could have been worse, but it could also have been better) and the (small) drop in quality of side two (which would have come out at about 3,5 stars) I'll reward this record with four bethlehem stars.