Dropshard 2014
Silk
Italian prog journeymen’s second foray into the Great Unknown proves to bear fine goods.
This band’s 2011’s debut was called “Anywhere But Home” which suggested a certain rambling, but its follow-up rams its message where their heart is. A concept album, “Silk” holds no grand scheme, so typical for ensembles from The Apennine, and focuses on melody and performance in equal measure. There are epic numbers, with heightened theatricality, such as the four-part, flute-flaunting “The Endless Road,” but “Cell 342” lays heavy riffs over a chamber-like rumination, and opener “Insight” cuts straight to the bone with its organ and guitar vortex that untangles into Enrico Scanu’s airy singing, thus perfectly justifying the record’s title.
Still, acoustic “Perpetual Dream” marries this delicacy to bluesy desperation, while “Eyes” embraces unexpected soulfulness and sees a piano flutter. And if “Less Is More” finds a gauzy effervescence in the festival of dynamic emotionality, “Maya” enshrouds lulling, though anxious, instrumental flow in arresting vocal harmonies. So it’s only closing “Memento” that lands onto regular art-rock terrain, yet the magical, intricate interplay saves the day to shed the light on the proceedings. There’s undoubtedly bright future ahead.
***4/5
