CHOCOLATE KINGS

Can't see the Gentle Giant connection as one reviewer suggested... plus - and let's be honest - poor old Bernardo Lanzetti was one of the worst prog vocalists ever, achieving the considerable feat of taking good singers like Lawton, Gabriel, Chapman and only taking the worst out of them all. BUT... this is, notwithstanding, a considerable album, meandering and unfocussed in places, diminished in comparison to earlier works, but still more than listenable. The clincher, of course, is From Under, a devastating opener, a passionate anti-smack paean with one of the longest, most seductive and beautiful main subject themes of any prog track which slowly unfurls, led by Pagani's violin, into a gathering crescendo of orchestral violence. It's rare that a track timed at 7:27 can seem too short, but here's one that does.