ALPHATAURUS

What an album from one of the greatest short-lived Italian Prog bands ever. Alphataurus, the underground quintet from Milan, produced their first and last album, a self-titled 1973 effort, "Alphataurus." From front to back, this album is purely amazing. Michele Bavaro (vocals) and Pietro Pellegrini (Keyboards) carry this album. There isn't much backstory behind this album, and it's mostly just a case of 5 great musicians coming together to create one of the most iconic Italian Prog records to date (with some sick classic cover art as well).

The album begins with a jazzy interlude from the 12-minute epic "Peccato D'Orgoglio" which quickly transitions into a prog masterclass. After an acoustic section, during which we are introduced to the wonderful voice of Michele Bavaro, the drums and synth pick up the song as Michele's voice reaches new heights right off the bat. Around the 4-minute mark, a drum roll brings us to the next section with heavy Moog, and Hammond Organ. This leads into a beautiful church organ section with a heavily distorted Hammond Organ providing bass. After an extremely Yessian transition, the song goes into an impressive Hammond section which displays the musicianship of Pietro Pellegrini (who would go on to play with PFM). The riff takes a lot of variations with tons of great Moog usage and vocals with more Yessian guitars and tempo. The song goes back to the church organ section, before going back into the heavy Moog riff from earlier in the song to close it out. After the absolute masterpiece, the second song "Dopo l'uragano," is probably the weakest on the album (Although it is by no means bad). It opens with wailing screams from Michele Bavaro over the guitar before going into the organ and guitar-dominated verse section. Halfway through the song, a phased-drum solo brings us into an interesting shorter instrumental part. The song closes on the acoustic theme from the beginning.

"Croma," is the shortest song on the album and acts as a bridge between the two pairs of songs. This song is extremely synth and strings-dominated switching between the jumpy, bach-esque build-up sections and the grand violin sections that make the song great. Organ comes in at the end to close out what might be the most Italian prog-sounding song of all time. "La mente vola," marks the second great epic of the album, clocking in at 9:00. It opens up with very impressive Moog work from Pellegrini for about 3 minutes. It then transitions into a piano-driven section with soft guitars and some of Michele Bavaro's best vocal work on the album. The first chorus leads back into the verse pretty normally, but by the second chorus, we get an iconic Moog solo from Pellegrini to go back into the verse, during which we hear an unexpected Xylophone solo. The song ends on the same Moog solo from before. The album closes on my personal favorite song, "Ombra Muta" which is just a little longer than the prior song. After an organ-dominated intro, we get one of Bavaro's most underrated vocal performances ever. The song then transitions into a fast section where Pellegrini solos on the Hammond over his own bass line. The guitar work from guitarist Guido Wassermann is really impressive here too. After an amazing Moog solo from Pellegrini, the fast-paced section finally comes to an end transitioning back into the intro with the ethereal guitars of Guido Wassermann over the echoing organ of Pietro Pellegrini. The song closes out on a high note (ignoring the weird instrumental things that they do for a few seconds in the end) and it's a perfect close to the album.

I really wish bands like Alphataurus and Alphataurus themselves had made more albums, but it seems like circumstances always got the best of these guys. They had the potential to have long careers with dozens of albums, but alas we are left with a 40-minute snapshot of what could've been. This album is about 4.7 stars for me, but I'll round it to a 5 because of the stunning musicianship. Highly recommended to all prog fans.