IN HOC SIGNO

What an extraordinary great record. This must be the best record I have heard from 2013 until this day. The Italians can really make astonishing music. When others make boring neo- stuff(sorry) these folks make frameless music that appeal to my sense all in. This is a highly recommended album!

"In hoc Signo" is the first album by the Italian group Ingranaggi Della Valle from Rome. From the first second to the last they impress me and that is not very common. Their music is filled with fantastic melodies, sometimes symphonic, sometimes in a seventies jazz form, sometimes classical and sometimes they feel like music theatres. They play a lot of fantastic instruments such as hammond, mellotron (Mattia Liberati), guitars(Flavio Gonnellini), violin(Marco Gennarini) and drums(Shanti Colucci). The singer is amazing(Igor Leone) and I want to praise Gennarini's wonderful violin which feels like classical music. Also they have borrowed a bunch of guest stars amongst others David Jackson(VDGG) plays sax and flute on the last track. Oh how this music is good and I can't help but thinking it's underrated.

"Introduzione" introduces the music shortly and then comes it as a powerful storm. The best tracks are: "Cavalcata" (what a voice we here, so dramatic), "Via Egnatia", "L'Assedio di Antiochia" (very theatrical), "Karriv'ian", "Il vento del tempo"(heavy piece) and "Finale" (with extraordinary instrumentation). I hear som much wonderful here. The jazz influences are very welcome and this is really progressive. Sometimes the strings sound like a violin solo in a Mendelssohn concerto and the vocals match PFM in their best days. And if this wasn't enough the record's cover is awesome, I wish I had it on a vinyl record. A modern masterpiece of progressive rock!