IL GRANDE LABIRINTO

The Mask of Wax did better with their second effort, although the same dark ingredients are used: anxious flute and mellotron, powerful Gabriel-era singing, thick fuzz bass lines, great analog keyboard textures. This record is solid proof that using the same ingredients can be stirred into something better, if blended and cooked properly.

What strucked me first in the record is the withdraw of a certain amount of melancholy and energy, replaced by quieter but tastier instrumental moments. These appreciable segments are showing more of the melodic and dramatic skills of the band, instead of insisting too much on the King Crimson sadness of the first eponymous record. Here we have more varied music, with oboe, guitars and Hammond Organ, not to mention some excellent melodies that makes you hasty to play it again; the hypnotic end of track 5 for instance, reminding me the intro of Par Lindh's Bilbo album.

Closer to Foxtrot than In the Court of Crimson King, Maschera di Cera is showing a brighter, mature and applicated side of their exceptionnal talent, telling us that they want to be taken seriously from now on.

Varied and subtle; that's why I'm so fond of it.

Absolutely, unshamedly recommendable...unlike the movie sporting the band's name starring Paris Hilton.

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