NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN

Short-lived US band from New Jesrsey, performing in a Classic Prog vein in the mid-70's.They consisted of Jim Cuomo on vocals/drums, Bryan Hough and Frank Petto on keyboards, Ryche Chlanda on guitars and Martyn Biglin on bass/12-string guitars.Their debut ''Night on Bald Mountain'' was released in 1975 on Passport Records, produced by Ian McDonald of King Crimson's fame and recorded between February and April of 75' at the Broadway Recording Studios in New York.

The 10-min. opening cut ''Les Cathedrales'' sets definitely the lines of Fireballet's music.Filled with odd time signatures, complex breaks but also harmonic pieces, the track offers plenty of enjoyable moments and sounds like Steve Howe and Chris Squire of YES jamming with Tony Banks of GENESIS, delivering great bass and guitar work along with diverse keyboard and piano lines.''Centurion'', although shorter, doesn't seem to change the fate of the album.GENESIS/YES-influenced Progressive Rock with good multi-choirs and and a great energetic feeling with some full space for instrumental madness, where organ and synths are prominent.''The Fireballet'' on the other hand has some very strong YES influence, where Cuomo sound much like JON ANDERSON along with same influence on the multi-vocal parts, bass and guitars.This time ''Atmospheres'' is fully GENESIS-inspired (''Trespass'' era), a soft prog ballad with an ANTHONY PHILLIPS-like smooth guitar delivery and calm piano along with the guest appearance of Ian McDonald on flutes.The grand 19-min. epic ''Night on Bald Mountain'' was Fireballlet's approach on the classic Mussorgsky piece and of course the most ambitious composition of the album.But while this one contains some quite grandiose and ground-breaking musicianship for the time, today it sounds less fresh but certainly not dated.Fireballet kept the basic structure of the track, adding their own personality through the massive use of analog keys, mostly huge-sounding organ and synths parts along with the needed piano parts, to come up with a decent effort, characterized by a cinematic sound.A couple of moments recall the evident DEEP PURPLE influence of the band as well and the performance of Cuomo reaches some high level.

File next to other great US prog bands such as CATHEDRAL, ETHOS, BABYLON or STARCASTLE.Nice and complex Symphonic Rock with some fine arrangements and great ideas throughout, where personality is an unknown work.Warmly recommended to fans of the Classic Prog age.