NOBODY

Zerothehero is a Crossover Prog project by the multi-instrumentalist Carlo Barreca, who is also the bassist for the Italian Heavy Prog band "Fungus" who, incidentally, has also just released an album in early 2019. Carlo began this project in 2007 and has released 3 full length albums and 1 EP.

"Nobody" is the name of Zerothehero's 3rd album, released in March of 2019. Carlo performs all of the instruments except for the drums, which are played by Stefano Firpo. The album comes on a self released CD-R, or can be downloaded from Bandcamp. The album is made up of 11 tracks which overall has a run time of over 40 minutes.

The album tries to convey a feeling of solidarity through improvisational melodies and does it in a somewhat minimalist nature with slow moving instrumentals, mostly driven by guitars, acoustic and electric. The first three tracks work as a conjoined suite. Drums are not even introduced until "Caruggi", but their inclusion doesn't do much to drive interest. The same can be said oft the hand percussion that meanders along with the guitar on "Hands in My Pockets".

The track "Chairs" sounds like it could be interesting when it starts out, but repetitive guitar riffs really take things nowhere, even when intensity starts to build. It ends up sounding a bit clunky. The last part of the song finally picks up and adds some echoing flute layers giving it a sound similar to the psychedelic early sound of Porcupine Tree, but this soon ends abruptly. "Hourglass" has a pretty piano and mellotron introduction and surprise vocals, but the vocals sound "off". There is an abrasive guitar solo at 3 minutes.

"Sandspotting" just meanders around. "Urban Landscape" utilizes mid tempo drums, some decent keyboards supplying foundation with improvised guitar and actually sparks some emotion, but it is over much too quick. "Light/Lunch" goes back to the meandering style with a trumpet and guitar working together and the inclusion of what sounds like bicycle bells echoing along. Towards the last part of the track things get a bit experimental, but still not very interesting. The album finishes off with "Some Sunny Day". The trumpet stays around for this one and follows the guitar melody, but the two sounds clash a bit, and there are some sour notes. The drums play a pattern and are more active in this track, but seem to go against the slower moving theme and improvisational parts. I believe the track is trying to convey some hope after the mostly dark and hopeless feel of the rest of the album.

The music on this album is pensive, yet meandering. The few places on this album that sound like they might be trying to generate some emotion or interest are always over much too quickly, otherwise, the album doesn't really seem to find its target. There is nothing wrong with pensive and thoughtful music, even when trying to obtain a feeling of absence, but overall, this music just sounds clunky as it wanders aimlessly around. There just isn't that much on here that is interesting or even emotional. This is disappointing considering that the 2019 Fungus album was actually pretty good.