IL FANTASTICO VIAGGIO DEL "BAGAROZZO" MARK

"Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" (English translation: "The Fantastic Journey of the Beetle Mark") is the 4th full-length studio album by Italian progressive rock artist Goblin. The album was released through Cinevox Records in 1978. It´s the successor to "Suspiria" from 1977. Unlike its predecessor "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is not a soundtrack album, but instead a concept album telling the story of a flying bug named Mark and his colorful adventures in the imaginary land of Goblin. Two of the tracks from the album ("La danza" and "Notte") were however used on the soundtrack for the George A. Romero 1978 horror movie "Martin" (known internationally as "Wampyr").

"Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is the first Goblin to feature vocals (at least traditional singing with lyrics), which are performed by guitarist Massimo Morante. He has a pleasant voice and can sing both melodic, theatrical/paatos filled (in the typical Italian tradition), and a little more raw and hard rocking when that is called for. Considering this is his first vocal performance with Goblin he does a great job here.

Stylistically the material on "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is symphonic progressive rock. An organic and well playing rhythm section, both electic and acoustic guitars (and some very well played guitar solos), and loads of synths and keyboards. I hear influences form artists like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis here and there, but Goblin manage to create a relatively distinct sound. Goblin bring a few electronic elements, a couple of saxophone solos, and a disco beat to the table too, but those aren´t dominant elements, and the music here is predominantly early 70s influenced symphonic progressive rock.

One of the great assets of "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is the warm, organic, and detailed sound production, which does exactly what the best sound productions are supposed to do. Present the material in the best possible way for the listener to enjoy. So upon conclusion "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is a high quality release by Goblin and one of the few musical adventures they took outside making music specifically for movies ("Roller (1976)" is the other example and of course also the 1975 album they released under the Cherry Five monicker before changing their name to Goblin). It´s a bit of a shame they didn´t expore this sound a bit more, but the fact that the album was mared by poor album sales probably didn´t give them much motivation to continue down this road, when they could make money making soundtrack music. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.