BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO

I only have listened to three albums released by BANCO: "Di Terra", "Darwin!" and this, their first album. After listening to "Di Terra", which I consider a very good album, I expected more of the same very good music. Unfortunately, in my case, after "Di Terra" the other albums that I have listened from this band, which is a very good band, are not in the list of my favourite albums. But I recognize that this band has talented musicians and they also make good music with good arrangements. It is, in my opinion, a band very influenced by Classical Music, and I think that most of their members are trained musicians in Classical Music schools. As I wrote in my review for "Darwin!", I think that lead singer Francesco DiGiacomo has a good voice. Maybe he was trained as an Opera singer, so his voice is not very common to be found in Prog Rock bands. I think that liking his voice takes time, several listenings. Also the music from this band is complex, and it also takes several listenings to really like it. In comparison to "Di Terra" and "Darwin!", I think that "Di Terra" is the best I have listened from this band, but this first album is more accessible than "Darwin!" but not as accessible as "Di Terra". Anyway, this album has more interesting things than "Darwin!" so I prefer it more than "Darwin!". One of the highlights in this album is the very long song called "Il Giardino Del Mago". Di Giacomo`s vocals are very expressive and dramatic in some places. It was until recently that I was listening to some Italian Opera Arias (sung by Giusepe Di Stefano; I`m not a Fan of Operas, but now I`m trying to learn how to appreciate them) that I really appreciated how good Di Giacomo is as a singer. So, despite this band is not one of my favourites, I think that this album has some interesting things to be listened by every Fan of Prog Rock music.