DOPO L'INFINITO

Firenze's Nuova Era were one of the bridge era bands connecting the 70s RPI to the modern scene and existed in a difficult time in the late 1980s. Their work has been hailed as being on par with the best of the 70s bands which I think is a bit of a stretch. Only their fourth album really blew me away. I can understand that in the 80s and 90s these early albums may have sounded like a revelation of sorts, but these days bands whose goals either retro or modern have released work that well exceed this. "Dopo L'Infinito" was their 2nd album and has some nice moments but also many problems from my viewpoint. My favorite moments are the spacey textures this album contains, where vocals are held back and you get these atmospheric keys with a Steve Howe inspired, volume-pedal lead guitar over the top. Very beautiful and ethereal. But much of the album seems more fixated on Yes and Camel than on the traditional Italian sound, and this along with the rather cheesy 80s keyboard and guitar sound often gives the album a hard to articulate feel that just doesn't hold up that well. Next problem is the composition, which as many have mentioned, is all over the map. When you pack the goods like a Topographic Oceans, meandering can be fine, but ladies and gents, Dopo is no Topographic. Thus the lack of meat here is a problem when this boat starts to drift on the ocean of prog clichés. The themes are on the upbeat side with a "march-ey" neo-prog feel that should appeal to Script-era Marillion fans as well. Consistency aside, I don't want to be too harsh on this album. There are certainly many good moments in there too, lovely atmospheres, solid vocals, and guitar work that can be pretty tasty. As regards this band, my advice to RPI fans new to Nuova Era would be to start with the 4th album and work backward chronologically. I don't feel this title is all that representative of the best of the RPI movement and that's putting it lightly. About 2 ½ stars. The next album would be an improvement pretty much across the board

Share this NUOVA ERA review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Finnforest
• Report this review (#604671)
• Buy NUOVA ERA music online with PA partners
• Show all NUOVA ERA MP3/Stream
• Go to NUOVA ERA page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Dopo L'Infinito page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for NUOVA ERA related discussions