PURGATORIO -THE DIVINE COMEDY, PART II

Reviewing a compilation longer than 4 hours means trying to be as synthetic as possible. Following the original structure of Dante's Comedy the whole opera consists in three different compilations, one for each after-death realm. It's a pity that the number of songs doesn't reflect the number of chapter as it happened for Inferno. This Purgatorio contains 36 tracks over 33 chapters (Canto).

Let's look at each of them very quickly:

DISC 1:

SIMON SAYS - "Intro" : Soft and acoustic for the first minute, turns into spacey and chaotic in the second half. Purgatory is a place of atonement, so even if not dark as Inferno is not a good place for a holiday.

NEMO "Canto I": Interesting synth-guitar at the start. A French band that sounds RPI. A song with many instrumental interludes and a lot of organ on odd signatures. KEYBRIDGE "Canto II": Acoustic guitar in Ant Phillips style then organ. Strongly inspired to Genesis.

OZONE PLAYER "Canto III": Somebody stole a keyboard to Rick Wakeman. A dark instrumental like the seventh wife of Henry VIII. RAIMUNDO RODULFO "Canto IV": A very interesting one. Little YES influences with more than a touch of jazz. I think I'll check other things of him.

TEN MIDNIGHT "Canto V": A chaotic start then a very melodic song. Genesis influences also on this track.

SOULENGINE "Canto VI": 12-strings guitar and organ, odd signature. Then it's between Genesis and Yes. Nice instrumental.

WILLOWGLASS "Canto VII": A prog-folk tune. Very interesting. There's a touch of CAMEL. ATLANTIS 1001 "Canto VIII": A heavy prog song with some psychedelic moments. One of the best things of disc 1.

DISC 2:

CONTRAPPUNTO PROJECT "Canto IX": Good piano solo with classical feelings.

SOPHIA BACCINI "Canto X": Electronic as usual, Sophia is an eclectic artist that I'd see best fitting into RIO/Avant than to RPI. This is more melodic than usual.

NEXUS "Canto XI": An ELP clone but well written and performed. The vocalist gives a touch of King Crimson and the guitar has some of Peter Banks. Not bad. NUOVA ERA "Canto XII": I'm not an RPI fan but this is one of the RPI bands that I like more. This is one of the highlights, specially the piano part.

SURVIVAL "Canto XIII": An organ-based instrumental. More with Wakeman than with Emerson. Jon Anderson's voice would have fitted well on this instrumental.

LITTLE TRAGEDIES "Canto XIV": Interesting track, mainly because I can't relate it to any dynosaur, even if the keyboard sounds very neo-prog. Another good moment of this disc.

ARMALITE "Canto XV": An RPI song wit hgood instrumental moments.

PHIDEAUX "Canto XVI": A great song. Excellent keyboards and guitar. I'm not into Phideaux but it's another band that I need to explore better.

TOMMY ERIKSSON "Canto XVII": Steve Hackett has been here....

DISC 3:

ENTRANCE "Canto XVIII" Dark keyboards and odd signatures in a Genesis style. The vocalist is powerful and sings with a personal style. Check it out.

MAXWELL'S DEMON "Canto XIX": The darkest moment of the whole compilation maybe. A challenging track almost experimental. RAK "Canto XX": As counterpart to the previous, this is opened by a choir. A symphonic prog song. The singer has a very particular voice.

COLOSSUS PROJECT "Canto XXI": Subtle keyboards grow from silence. Dark neo-prog ? Another band to check out.

MATTHIJS HERDER "Canto XXII" It doesn't sound original but I can't identify a specific remind. Probably there's a bit of "everything" and all from the 70s. From ELP to Tangerine Dream. MAD CRAYON "Canto XXIII": I hear similarity with Soft Macine's Land of Cockayne. The violin arrangement is very interesting. A very good track.

TABULA SMARAGDINA": Canto XXIV": A great band from the Eastern Europe. As most of the bands from the east they are influenced by ELP and YES but also by classical and folk. The singer is a low-pitched version of Annie Haslam. (effectively a passage reminded me to Carpet of the Sun). BLANK MANUSKRIPT "Canto XXV": This is a very interesting track. YES and KING CRIMSON the bands I think to. The sax gives it a jazzy mood. The voices add a touch of crazyness and maybe of WISHBONE ASH. I really like this song.

LADY LAKE "Canto XXVI": An excellent dialog between two guitars and bass, then piano. A little reminding of Jethro Tull and one of the best things of the whole compilation.

DISC 4:

GROOVECTOR "Canto XXVII": This Finnish band is taking the inheritance of Wigwam and mainly of Pekka Pohjola. The sound is very similar, Good song with a remarkabòe spacey part in the middle. MIST SEASON "Canto XVIII": Pekka seem to have influenced the way the Finnish play bass. However this is a prog-folk song with an excellent female vocalist and some jazzy accents. FLAMBOROUGH HEAD "Canto XXIX": Piano and flute then acoustic guitar for another prog- folk instrumental piece with reminds to CAMEL and KAYAK. Very good also this. YESTERDAYS "Canto XXX" This is the band of the best song of INFERNO. This is as good as that. Unfortunately they are still the only two songs that I know from them. NOTE: They are from Romania, not Hungary) B612 "Canto XXXI" A bit too melodic. Apparently inspired by the Collins' era of Genesis. The girl who sings is remarkable. EQUILIBRIO VITAL "Canto XXXII": An epic keyboard without connection with Emerson or Wakeman. This is the good thing. This is a very intense piece of music and quite original even if could be dated in the 70s. The first thing that I hear from this eclectic band. (At least this song is eclectic). JINETES NEGROS "Canto XXXIII": Dark and heavy symphonic. Not bad. SIMON SAYS (Swe) "Outro" A short symphonic to close the album. More or leass the same as Intro. PASINI & RAGOZZA "Purgatorio": A rocky RPI summary so to have 9 tracks on each disc.

This is an excellent addition, not a masterpiece as Inferno, but if you have that one you cant miss the second part of the comedy.