SONO IO IL SIGNORE DELLE TERRE A NORD

CASTELLO DI ATLANTE must have break a Guinness record,as it took the band almost 18 years to release their first official album in 1992 under the title ''Sono io il signore delle terre a nord''.The band was formed back in 1974 but,as a lot of bands of the time,they didn't manage to release a record.In this time of 18 years the band released only some promo/demo tapes with not much interest by the music companies.Despite the ignorance and the difficulties,the basic line-up of CASTELLO DI ATLANTE managed to survive until the early 90's,when the Vinyl Magic label show some interest in them and finally the band published their first work...

The traditional italian symphonic rock sound is more than evident in this work.The production of the album is a little bit weak,but the arrangements are mostly very strong,creating a satisfying result.The sound of the album is somewhere between QUELLA VECCHIA LOCANDA and BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO of course somewhat distorted by the use modern technologies in instrumentation.Dark,romantic,balanced in complexity yet accesible and melodic,this album will leave speechless everyone who is deep in the RPI genre.Most of the songs are full of tasteful violin work,the fast piano passages are very strong and the interplay between them is the strongest point of the album!The vocals of in this album are also decent very much in the vein of the romantic expressive vocals of the 70's bands.However the keyboards' sounds,where added,are somewhat cheesy reminding more of pomp-rock bands and this is the most weak point of the production.The guitars are also tasteful and melodic,flirting sometimes with neo-prog,but this sound comes very natural rather than the band has ever heard to a neo-prog band...

This band hasn't just a lot of talent,the members of CASTELLO DI ATLANTE have grown and matured musically during the harsh time of these 18 years.Their debut album is a definition of italian symphonic prog despite the weak production and the lack of strong personality.3.5 stars for their long-awaited debut...