ZARATHUSTRA

The destiny of this band is somewhat similar to "Locanda Delle Fate". A great album released in the seventies, some live stuff and a come back much, much later.

This album is of course dominated by the "Zarahustra" suite. First two parts starts with difficulty but after a minute or so, each of them fully explodes. "L'Ultimo Uomo" being particularly successful. "Superuomo" probably being the harder one (the closest KC influenced one). And my fave is of course the most symphonic one : "Il Tempio Delle Clessidre". It is a short part, but full of passion : the keys are sublime and the guitar break will just blow you out. It could have lasted for ever ...

"Degli Uomini" is my fave "standard" track. Fantastic rhythm during most of it; it will feature very melodic moments as well. Italian prog in all its splenour.

"Della Natura" is a rather intricate song. It starts like an ELP track. It displays lots of theme changes; wild, symphonic (especially during some of the vocals), and before half time it turns definitely jazzier. This song is a bit hectic and incoherent. The last part (two minutes or so) being again full of lush mellotron.

The closing number is again close to KC. Hard and dark intro, immediately followed by a more symphonic part which switch almost instantly into hard again. And so on for over eight minutes. This song really goes into plenty of directions and it's difficult to follow. But it is still a pleasant song.

This is a good album of course; but I find that the great moments are somewhat too short and I will rate it substantially lower than most of my fellow reviewers. I far much preferred the debut form "Locanda".

Three stars.