Lucretia 2006 / Lion Music 2013
The return of Italian heavy proggers debut plumbs holes in the metal euphoria – with varied success.
A dozen years in existence didn’t result in a string of releases for this sextet, but the band’s first album, long out of print, has gained a sort of cult status, the success of their latest, 2012’s inheritance, providing a nice excuse to exhume it. The music still hangs well, especially when massed chorus run against the grain of growl as it is in the template-setting “Mhysterical”, but such a power metal element gets diluted in the speedy drumming of theatrical “Awakened’s Transitions”, quite hectic under the melodic guitars layer. The latter formed a part of the group’s 2003 demo, which is tagged to this reissue only to show the heightened elegance of the pieces’ initial shape.
Still the twin axes and Steve Braun’s voice fly high in the acoustically lined with piano and six-string strum “Fallen Angel” and the classically informed “Persistence Of Frailty”, the most artful composition on offer, its tight but loose flow and airy passages demonstrating the ensemble’s full potential as well as Davide Buso’s percussive mastery. More so, there’s symphonic sway to “A Puzzled Sentiment” which is blown away with generic prog chops of “Eden” with its synthesizer solo. Living up to the album’s title is good, and to cast a glance back is useful, if that’s what it takes to move forward.
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