Rockshots 2016
Nowhere Here
Pinpointing their location, Italian rockers reach out for distant horizon and grasp the end of the rainbow.
Two albums in 14 years suggest there’s a lot of toil and trouble involved in making a record, and this band’s line-up took a massive overhaul after their 2004 debut, but regrouping served the Torino quintet well: “Nowhere Here” is a modern but very mature work.
Building momentum from the cold riff of “Way Home” towards “The Sun” where rays of genuine joy come to the fore, the songs release tension in big choruses that marry alt. edge to an AOR core. So when Edoardo Pacchiotti’s vocals are hung on naked rhythm in “I Don’t Care” before Gianluca Rindone’s guitars cut in, emotions give it all a vertiginous spin which unravels in the title track, a mark of the ensemble’s serious intent and ability to stay on the right side of heavy balladry. Most unexpected, “Red” has a folk undercurrent sizzling under the piece’s surface pain, while the sparse, if intense, “Everything Is Wrong” could easily lend the same feelings to an orchestral treatment.
Less stress on negative things should make this band a winner. Hopefully, their toil and trouble are left behind now.
***4/5
