FROM THE DUST RETURNED

A group from Rome with a Ray Bradbury-inspired band name. According to the band this concept album recounts "a journey of purification necessary to be reborn to new life." It starts out sounding like neo-prog, but as it goes on, it settles into a stretch of heavy prog with memorable, dark riffs, lots of organ and impassioned Italian-accent vocals in English. Best songs are the title track, which develops from smoldering to intensity, and "Tears," which uses the "Black Sabbath" tritone riff. Effective if derivative and there's great personality to the keyboard sounds. Also noteworthy is "A Narrow Passage," a triple-time pile-driver of a song.

The sound on this record is best described as heavy progressive rock with cues and influences from 70's Italian prog and 60's psychedelic. The vocal performance is akin to a goofy Jim Morrison which, in and of itself, wouldn't be that bad if the songs were interesting. But they're not. Most of them are overly long explorations of a simple chord progression that has about as much intrigue as a guitar song book for kids. And even that still would have put this record at 2-stars were not it not for the "jamming" that goes on and on almost every track.

I know these guys are young and they're clearly skilled musicians. Hell, if you have a gig in Rome and need to hire a backing band, I'm sure these guys would do one hell of a job. But prog rock composers these dudes ain't. Better luck next time.

PROG SPHERE review

Homecoming is a debut EP release from a Rome-based progressive rock/metal act From the Dust Returned, comprised of six songs and released via Sliptrick Records.

Kicking off with "Harlequeen," Homecoming hints its diversity. Elements ranging from hard rock, heavy metal to Opeth-influenced Prog Metal and folk motifs are included. That fact also reveals the EP's biggest issue?it wants to be a lot of that in short time.

There is definitely potential here, and "Echoes of Faces" proves that. A song that has been recently featured on our Progotronics compilation, is a stronghold of the EP. The transition between acoustic-driven parts and avant-garde is rather smooth. "Glare" starts with a very nice melody provided by an acoustic guitar and clean vocals. The Hammond organ that can be heard here, and throughout the record, is another highlight and an element that makes difference. Following "Wipe Away the Rain"starts very atmospherically, but it doesn't take too long to become a hybrid child of Ayreon, Deep Purple and already mentioned Opeth.

Homecoming suffers in the production department. It certainly has many great ideas, but the sound could be fuller and more expressive, the mix is a bit weird due to the fact that some parts are buried.

What is important here is that From the Dust Returned made a brave step to produce a release that is stylistically very different, and with the experience called Homecoming I'm sure that they will take the best out of it and use that knowledge on their next release.

By Greg Dixon on May 8, 2017