ENDLESS

OK, now this is getting ridiculous. When I reviewed 2020's 'Tragic Separation' a year after it was released, I said I could not believe it had taken ten albums for me to come across them, as here was a band approaching the genre from AOR and with a heavy appreciation of Stratovarius. I put the review on ProgArchives and was amazed to see it was the only review of the album there. Fast forward to 2023's 'Separation' and when I placed that review on the site, I noticed there were still no reviews for the former album, and none for this one either. Now here we are with what is probably their best album I have come across and yet again no review for this one yet, and still none for the others, what is going on?

Imagine if you will an Italian prog metal band who are not taking any influences from their own country but instead are taking the metallic approach of Stratovarius and then blending it with classic Spock's Beard and Kansas to produce something which is simply stunning. This is the sixth album with the same line-up, stretching all the way back to 2009's 'frAme', with Mark Basile (vocals), Simone Mularoni (guitars), Emanuele Casali (keyboards), Andrea Arcangeli (bass) and Fabio Constantino (drums). This is their first concept album where they tell the story of one man's journey through life and asks the question about what would have happened if he had taken a different path. The first part of the album represents the protagonist's self-reflection on his current circumstances, the middle looks back on pivotal moments and imagines what could have been and what may have been missed out on, then at the end he looks back and asks 'why?'.

This never sounds Italian, as the American approach to melodic metal combines with classic prog influences to create something which is highly polished with far more emphasis on crunching guitars and harmony vocals than one would expect from RPI. They have a thundering rhythm section, while keyboards and guitars interplay, providing support, duetting or soloing and then at the front is the power of singer Mark Basile who is a real find. This is great stuff, as they have lifted the game again from the last two albums, which I also really enjoyed. Hopefully by the time I come to write about the next one more people will have realised that here is a really class act.