CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, PART 2

Two years after the release of his debut album, Italian pianist/keyboardist Massimo Pieretti offers his new work. This time it's just a single, and it is recorded with significantly smaller team of musicians, comparing with Pieretti debut.

Main attraction point of the only song of the release is Italian-born Sweden-raised vocalist Laura Piazzai (who collaborated with Pendragon/Arena keyboardist Clive Nolan among others). Her vocal is powerful, colored with classic soprano background.

Song's music is Massimo Pieretti's keyboards-based power metal, recalling some popular genre acts from 80s, as Swedish band Europe. Unfortunately, recorded sound is flat, only of demo-quality. Because of quite lifeless sound I expect the recording has been down on-line and mixed in studio. Vocals in moments doesn't fit precisely with instruments recording as well.

Song itself is straight-forward piece with some standard for the genre guitars/drums lines and the melody isn't memorable. There are not much prog elements as well (to be precise - not at all). Massimo's conceptual debut album showed some possible capacities, recent single doesn't fulfill the expectations. Hope his next work will offer more.

This very good song is the first single of Roman composer and keyboard master Massimo Pieretti's upcoming second album, which will be entitled 'The Next Dream' and will be released in a few months. That record will have a feast of guest musicians, mostly from Italy, but also from around the globe.

In this first approach, Pieretti and guests delight us with a 5-minute track that starts with Claudio Milano's enigmatic voice, opening the gates to a proggy and rocky sound, with guitars that remind me a bit of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell era, and with a potent vocal work from Laura Piazzai, which adds a theatrical sound to the song.

Drums and percussions are provided by Mattias Olsson from legendary Swedish band Anglagard, and his work is remarkable, as usual. The track is colorful, while Pieretti creates different layers with his keys, we can appreciate some classical-like strings such as violin and cello, as well as the rockish base created by bass, drums and guitar.

It is an enjoyable track to my ears, I've liked it and now am curious to know what's next, so I'll be keen on listening to the upcoming album.

Give this single a listen!