LA CRUDELTÀ DI APRILE

Ok, one more Italian and unlike last one this was excellent progressive rock music in my taste. There is so many great bands you can learn about here on ProgArchives and here's my opinion of Unreal City's debut record "La Crudeltà di Aprile" from 2013.

The album cover shows a face of a screaming statue with light in its mouth. It has an ancient feeling. As I was in Rome in februari and saw similar monsters at the Amphi theatre in Ostia Antica this isn't totally new. Well, the dark cover perhaps frightens the listener to think this will be metal, but thankfully it isn't.

Unreal City plays magic progressive rock with connections back in time. Very prominent is the grand church organ in the fantastic third song "Catabasi" and honestly the organ, played by Emanuele Tarasconi is one of the most important reasons this is such a good album. He plays fluently and the sound becomes powerfull. The historic sound is distinct in the album's best track "Atlantis" where Tarasconi plays clavinet and Francesca Zanetta plays lute, amongst other magic things that happen. The music is wild and unpredictable. As many other good prog records this also features a mastodont song, the last one "Horror vacui" which is great and interesting. I include "La Crudeltà di Aprile" in a group of the best albums until now released in 2013. First track "Dell'Innocenza perduta" in wonderful in many ways, especially the second half.

The only important ingrediens I deem this collection lacks is a great vocalist or perhaps a little more original one. Tarasconi who does is, isn't bad, but I don't find him very good either. Till next album I think they should share the vocals or do something else about it. Otherwise I find this very good.

Musicians not already mentioned are Francesco Orefice (bass) and Federico Bedostri(drums). Guest musician Fabio Biale also does a good job on particularly the first track. This is a piece of tunes I would recommend for you, and perhaps it's underrated. I give it four strong stars!

All songs: 2.Atlantis(10/10), 1.Dell'innocenza perduta(9/10), 6.Horror vacui(9/10), 3.Catabasi(8/10), 4.Dove la luce è piu intensa(8/10), 5.Ecate(7/10) = 4.25