DÉ LÁ TEMPESTA ... L'OSCURO PIACERE

I got this album because I loved the singing of Grosso on the Asgard albums. Here, however, he is much less powerful and evocative, and I get the feeling that the band asked him to restrain his singing and to try hard to emulate Peter Gabriel from the 70's. I suppose, in that sense, he succeded somewhat. But to me, the singing lacks conviction, passion, and fire which he demostrated so brilliantly on the Asgard releases. In any case, the songs here are not bad at all. Something of a mix of Gabriel era Genesis and more modern (for the mid-90's anyway) ambient sounds, as well as some nylon string guitar and flute folkyness. I find Il Funeralle Della Luna to be the most interesting song, with the final number being also fairly strong. But the whole thing is pretty consistent. It sounds like a band that never had a chance to grow beyond their obvious influences (mainly Genesis), but still managed to develop something of their own sound. It would have been interesting to hear further albums from them, but this is the only one. Most dissapointing for me would be that this was the last I would hear of Grosso.

An average album, only required for Asgard fans and proggers with vast collection. 3 solid stars.