E FU IL SESTO GIORNO

Back in 1972 the Italian prog rock scene was in full swing and the nation set itself apart from many other European by taking the most interest in the exploding prog rock style and also was one of the few nations that utilized their own language for lyrics. In addition to the bigwigs of PFM, Bnaco, Area and the Celeste type acts out there, there were a gazillion smaller acts that blossomed into an equal amount of directions making the Italian prog rock scene one of the most fruitful and diverse in Europe with countless bands forming, recording an album or two and then disappearing into obscurity.

METAMORFOSI was one of those lesser known bands that came from Rome and managed to pump out two releases before they would take a hiatus until their 2004 comeback "Paradiso" Better known for their second release "Inferno," their debut release E FU IL SESTO GIORNO (And It Was The Sixth Day) came out in the height of the RPI craze. The band formed way back in 1969 and was originally part of the late 60s beatnik scene before heading into the realms of progressive rock and on this debut album can be heard some of the remnants of their pop years which in all honesty makes this album a little tame in comparison to the other bands of the period.

What begins sounding like one of the Andean folk bands with those unique sounding flutes and even the style i was beginning to think that someone slipped a Los Jaivas album in my METAMORFOSI digipak, but lo and behold the lyrics come out Italian and it starts sounding like the pastoral symphonic prog the Italians were pumping out at breakneck speed in '72. Many of the bands prog elements are in play here. This is first and foremost a classically keyboard album focusing on the playing of Enrico Olivieri who delivers nice hooks and pleasing melodies accompanied by the operatic vocal approach of Jimmy Spitaleri. One of the things that separates METAMORFOSI from other bands is that the guitar parts were kept to a minimum and when the very few solos occur they are usually accompanied by the flute.

For an RPI album of 1972 this is pretty weak. At this point the band hadn't stepped too far beyond the 60s and the songs are very boring compared to the explosion of creativity all around them. What we get is simple song structures that never really develop into much of interest. The melodies are pretty straight forward and there are literally no surprises like on "Inferno." This one plays it way too safe and suffers from a serious lack of imagination. After coming to this one after "Inferno" i was way underwhelmed. While nothing on here is bad by any means, nothing is memorable either. This is Italian pop rock that has a just a bit of prog lite that leaves me unsatisfied. Luckily they would step it up big time for their followup.