ASRAVA

There's always something in the mid 90's Italian Prog Scene that bothers me a lot, the dated keyboard sounds/the shameful sound of drums, I really don't understand some of the things recorded in this particular time of decade, the bands wanted so bad emulate the 70's sound, but most of them just don't have equipement or structure to record their sound nicely, some of them had great writing skills, but most of them...

'Prologo' is no diferent, the 'spacey' keyboards gets me a little bored, and I think it's too long for a 'prologue'.

'Ezra Pound' has this awful sound that I talk about, drums and keyboards working in a bad way, and the guitar doesn't help them, the unique saviour is the bass, a nice warm/rickenbaker alike sound, and I really like this kind os bass sound, but, in the second part of the song he ruins his sound with a Wha emulator, and the keys on this particular part is no different.

''99' has once again the terrible Wha bass sound, I really don't understand why use it so much, and the keys is like a like to call 'barbacue sound' (don't ask me why). The vocals from Fabio Gaspari (responsable for the strange Wha bass sound too) is quite good, that once old mood we well known for the Italian bands. But I really like the last part, where keys really reminded the 70's (around 07:00), but in the sequence they come back with the 'poor' sound, sad. But once again, the vocals from Fabio are very good.

'La Leggerezza Della Libertà' is a calm ballad commanded by acoustic guitar.

'Ásrava' is a 'rock drive song' as you wish. The mid part is almost a 'funk', flutes included! But if it makes your head shake it's OK. Nice guitar solo and nice trumpet solo too, really nice.

'Terra incognita', very nice start here! Full of atmospheric sounds, waterfalls, dreamy keyboards like in Tangerine Dream, warm sound, I really can't tell why the guys don't explore more of this sounds at that time, the following is just the same. The vocals full of effects is not a bad touch, Fabio have a really beautifull voice, I think that the band could (at that time) invest more in this line of sound, it could be the best for the band.

'Epilogo' have a nice melody line, really nice with cool vocals, worth for an album ending, but, way too late for save this record!

All my reviews included here and in my website had some optimistic point of view, I like to see the good side on all the music I listen to, but in this one is quite complicated, cause it have the most things I dislike in Prog scene. And for people who didn't listen to their music yet, or wanna listen with own ears just chek out this link www.maolimassimo.free.fr/Logos/Engmp3.htm this record is available for free download at their website.