IL PASSO DEL SOLDATO

'Il Passo del Soldato' is not only Nuova Era's most prominent work, but also one of the most outstanding masterpieces of 90s prog. Sadly, it also signalled Nuova Era's farewell... anyway, what a way to go! Now ensembled as a power trio since the band had lost its guitar player, the band manages to take the hardest side of itself out and explode in a colourful fire of colours. This fire is basically provided by Walter Pini's arsenal of keyboards (heavy presence of loud Hammond, thundering synths and dense mellotron layers), though it's also fair to note down the solid foundation laid by the undefatigable rhythm section, energetic and precise. Nuova Era displays its own voice by recycling dinamically the influences of Inferno-era Metamorfosi, Balletto di Bronzo, Darwin-era BMS, as well as ELP. Since the missing guitarist was also the lead singer, he had to be replaced by a vocalist, whose range is very similar to that of Biglietto's lead singer: a very appropiate thing, since the band's direction is decidedly harder. The fact that this album is conceptually construed around the destructive power of war is also a main factor for this hard rocking emphasis. The introductory marching drums and feet at the start of 'All'ombra di un Conflitto' set the overall mood right away, as a strategy of frontal assault: the strategy is fierily continued on bombastic tracks such as 'Lo Spettro dell'Agonia sul Campo' and the ambicious title track (the two actually being my fave numbers). 'Lo Spettro dell'Agonia sul Campo' states a sense of stylish aggressiveness, with the massive display of organ and synthesizers delivering a ballsy majesty; 'Il Passo del Soldato' is a 12 minute epic that sets a wide array of somber motifs, with a solid power enhanced by the arrangements. 'La Parata dei Simboli' is less incandescent, based on an appealing baroque-like sequence of piano, mellotron and synth chord progressions and textures. After a reflective statement made in 'Riflessi di Pace', 'Epitaffio' concludes as a splendid reprise of motifs from tracks 1, 2 and 4. As a bonus track, we are given an instrumental piece from the band's old repertoire, recorded without the guitarist, of course. I wish this bonus would have been placed somewhere else, since the structure of 'Epitaffio' demanded that it were the exclusive closure. But this is a very very minor factor: the main thing is that this album is a masterpiece, that equals the top-notch creativity and intensity of such classics of Italian hard prog as Metamorfosi's 'Inferno', Balletto' 'Ys' and Museo Rosenbach's 'Zarathustra'.