MALEDETTI

An interesting jazzy album by one of my all-time favorite Italian groups. Unfortunately, After the amazing album "Crac" the band wasn't able to follow up at the same level. This album could potentially be really great if I could just cut out about 40% of the boring noisy junk. let's explore:

The first song "Evaporazione" is weird and pretty much pointless, yet oddly amusing. I wouldn't really consider it music though. "Diforisma Urbano" is a very jazzy and unique keyboard dominated jam. Classic Area. "Gerontocrazia" starts out slow with some random noodling by the band, then about halfway gets reeally good with some excellent keyboard work. An okay song with potential. "Scum" is a song that may take a while to appreciate. Its got a mix of classical piano playing with a mix of intense, fast-paced avant garde jazz playing. Leandro Gaetano (piano) really demonstrates his amazing talent here. This song gives Keith Emerson a run for his money. The last minute and a half is just weird abstract noise that does nothing for me. Very cool track still, probably my favorite on the album. "Il Massacro" is a really random song that's entirely a classical symphony. Sounds nothing like the rest of the album, I don't know why they bothered with this. "Giro, Giro, Tondo" is another jam that gets interesting about a minute in. Its a good track, but not at the same level as the second and third song. "Caos, pt2" starts with even more pointlessness. Maybe i'm missing something, but almost the entire song is just noise. It just sounds lazy and uninspired. which is really too bad, because it ends the album terribly.

Overall, The small amount of Demetrio Stratos' vocals is disappointing, because I absolutely love his style. And there are too many parts of the album that seem unnecessary and sound like weird avant garde noise just for the sake of it. Compared to some of their other albums, this one is not very memorable. Nonetheless, There are some fantastic jams on this album. A good album for any fan of the group, unfortunately I can't really recommend this to anyone else. Unless you are willing to put up with lots of uninteresting nonsense for about 20 minutes of great jams.

2.5 stars.