LOVE HATE ROUND TRIP

"Love Hate Round Trip" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Italian progressive rock act Areknamés. The album was released through Black Widow Records in 2006. It´s the successor to the band´s eponymously titled debut album from 2003. There have been a couple of lineup changes since the debut album as the band have opted to add a dedicated guitarist to their ranks in Stefano Colombi. Colombi recorded a guitar solo on the debut album (on the "Boredom" track), but wasn´t a permanent member on that album. There´s been one more change in the lineup as drummer Mino Vitelli has left and has been replaced by Simone Antonini.

"The skeletal landscape of the world" opens the album with some pretty heavy riffs and rhythms which wouldn´t be out of place on a Black Sabbath album, but Areknamés are a more eclectic bunch, and stylistically the material on "Love Hate Round Trip" is a combination of many different hard rock and progressive rock elements and styles. The debut album was strongly influenced by Van der Graaf Generator (especially the vocals), but "Love Hate Round Trip" doesn´t rely as much on that particular influence, although the influence from the darkness and creative songwriting of that band are still audible. Other influences heard on the album are from artists like Pink Floyd and King Crimson.

Lead vocalist/keyboard player Michele Epifani is a central figure in Areknamés. Of course as a frontman there´s great focus on you, but it´s not his singing skills or voice which are anything extraordinary (in fact he isn´t the most interesing singer out there), but instead his organ/piano/mellotron contributions, which are a great asset to the music.

Featuring 12 tracks and 78:02 minutes of music, "Love Hate Round Trip" is arguably a very long album, and maybe also slightly too long, but overall the quality of the material is high, and Areknamés successfully incorporate both heavy, mellow, and atmospheric parts, to make "Love Hate Round Trip" a relatively varied release. The album features an organic and decent sounding production job, and upon conclusion it´s a good quality sophomore studio album by Areknamés. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.