PSALM 6

Another one good piece of news came from Russian prog band called Roz Vitalis some weeks ago: new EP Psalm 6 had been released 11th september of 2016. It's always interesting to hear new Roz Vitalis works for me because they bring something new every time. This release isn't an exception. This isn't a full-lenght album, just 33 minutes of music, but at least two tracks of it will be included [with some changes] in following LP. To tell the truth, I'm awaiting the result of this Roz Vitalis composing iteration (they played some material and posted live recordings here and there in the web) to see if they can exceed the peak they reached in previous Lavoro d'Amore album which is quite good record in all aspects, technically and structurally, and, as I think is the most interesting and complete work of the band at the time.

But, ok... Let's turn on our stereo system and listen to the recent EP. The first track entitled Psalm 6 is very strong progressive-rock composition with precisely elaborated structure (which definitly interprets christian text musically), good melodies and not typical for Roz Vitalis beginning of the track. Excellent solos are passing through the track also. Wonderful piece of music! It needs to mention The Prophet and Denial of Access which continues The Prophet and uses its musical theme: two tracks are in close conceptual relationship. The first one is based on national russian poet and writer A. Pushkin's poem called "The Prophet", and the second one is the band's musical interpretation of possible continuation of the first. The idea will be clear if you read the poem. But in my opinion those tracks in triade leaded by first Trattamento make the rest of the record sooo sleepy. (Need to say "Denial of Access" passed me away when I listened to the album at first time... because of zzzzzz... so soon after I decided to play the "Prophet and Denial" pair again but separately from other tracks. Excellent! These two tracks are actually that "something new" I wrote earlier about!) At least this slow triade will be followed with strong dynamic piece to wake the listener up, but it seems "Passing Over" with its perfect begin and end parts can not take this role in EP because of unattractive and primitive (not minimalistic, but primitive!) part from 1:55 to 3:22 which can not resolve the sleepy tension of previous triplet. And... I wanted to change/improve something there in that part when listened to it. Maybe it needs to oversound that noizy few-chorded organ sound with anything else which is more interesting technically?

I also advisely don't like to compare band's music with music of any other well-known bands because of Roz Vitalis own style which can be heard stronger and stronger in time through various musical styles of band's albums. I realized this when was listening to Lavoro d'Amore again and again, and Psalm 6 EP actually confirms my previous statement. So it is certanly very good as preview EP, and, of course, I'm looking forward to hear band's forthcoming full-length album.