INFERNO

Metamorfosi's second album was a "concept" inspired by the first part of the famous Dante Alighieri's poem "La Divina Commedia" that describes an imaginary journey of the poet through the Hell where he meets the best known sinners of his time... Well, in their album "Inferno" (Hell) Metmorfosi do not try to merely transpose the poetry of Dante Alighieri in music. They try to tell their own imaginary journey through the hell describing with music and lyrics the pains of "modern sinners" like drug pushers, Mafiosi, exploiters, members of KKK etc...

In the opener "Introduzione" the sound of organ and the inspired vocals of Davide "Jimmy" Spitalieri draw a gloomy landscape. "Flowers without colour grow on the ruins of ancient cities / Sad trees stretch to the sky branches corroded by the time". Then a keyboards-driven "infernal tarantella" (that every now and again reminds me slightly of PFM's "E' festa") leads through a "Selva oscura" (Dark forest) to the "Porta dell'Inferno" (Hell's Gate) where organ and vocals warn you: "Leave all hopes, you who enter / Damned souls, you will suffer in hot and freeze!".

Then rhythm goes up again for the meeting with the wicked "Caronte" (Charon), the demon with "eyes of fire in the dark" and with the first damned, a drug pusher ("Spacciatore di droga") haunted by his victims. "Now that you swear because of anger and pain / You, drug pusher, are going to cry / You will serve time in the hardest darkness / Where you can't have the illusions that you use to give". "Extinguished eyes are looking for you in the void / Junkies of a world without reality / How many times they had suffered because of your greed! / But now it is not with money that you have to pay". Dramatic moods in all the tracks, bound together with great energy (though in this album there's no much room for guitars) and remarkable musicianship.

After the break of "Terremoto" (Earthquake), the rhythm calm down for the passage in the "Limbo", just before the meeting with the "lovers of vice and pleasure", the "Lussuriosi" (Luxurious). This track, that close side A, seem more ironic than dramatic and in my opinion this is the weakest point of the album.

Side B begins with "Avari" (Niggards), a short track about the meeting with a miser and greedy damned that musically reminds slightly of PFM's "Impressioni di settembre" with keyboards leading the instrumental refrain. "I have never prayed / Money was my God / And I will have to pay here". "How many times did you take pleasure seeing people fall down? / You were blind and you must pay".

The following and more complex "Violenti" (Violents) is about the meeting with a murderer in a "Mafia revenge". "Red the blood flows among the paths where life is fragile / It was a burning sunny day of August when his life vanished / He fell, shot down because he had betrayed you / He was found with a stone in his mouth in that field of orange trees / After two days the whole village followed the funeral / A crowd walks slowly following an altar of death / A woman cries, left to fight alone in the silence / Black is the veil on her face, covering two tears of pain"... One of the best moments of the album that melts in dark landscape of "Malebolge", the "Black jails of cry".

After the meeting with the "Sfruttatori" (Exploiters), condemned to sink in a sea of sweat because they took away the harvest of the peasants with the arms of the law, there's the meeting with the "Razzisti" (Racists), members of the Ku Klux Klan. "You have despised a man to make him your slave / On the cotton fields more bended is his back / Work nigger! Sweat! Cry! Die!... Masked men, sect of damned / Pinned to these crosses now you burn!". The music is powerful with many changes of rhythm, theatrical vocals and no room for boredom.

In the instrumental "Fossa dei Giganti" there is a little break when on a simple line of bass the keyboards just suggest the anthems of U.S.A. and of The Soviet Union. When the album was released it was the time of the "Cold war" and of the fear of the atomic bomb. For many people politicians seemed to be representatives of the Evil playing with the World, so it was normal to find them in Hell freezing forever into the sea. "Gentlemen presidents, with your politics you have woven every deceit and betrayed the ideal of man. And my blood freezes thinking to our Hell". The fear melts in the sweet and delicate conclusion that marks the end of the journey (or of the nightmare if you prefer). "And then we could see the stars again".

In the whole "Inferno" is definitely a good album though with some ingenuities.. Personally, sometimes I miss the sound of the guitar but there is a good interaction between the other instruments and the keyboards work is really outstanding. So, in my opinion, "Inferno" is an excellent addition to any prog collection and an album that it is really worth listen to.