Il Bacio Della Medusa
Discesa agl'inferi d'un giovane amante

Release Date: 2008 | Tracklist

“Discesa Agl’Inferi D’Un Giovane Amante” is the second studio album of Il Bacio Della Medusa. The line up on the album is Simone Cecchini, Simone Brozzetti, Eva Morelli, Daniele Rinchi, Federico Caprai and Diego Petrini.


Il Bacio Della Medusa is a progressive rock group which was born in 2002. The band embraces the 70’s progressive rock style. The progressive facets of the band touch both the Anglo-Saxon side and the Mediterranean, a characteristic known today as Italian Progressive Rock. Refined texts, long-winded titles and imaginative covers for a baroque style are typical of bands like Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Le Orme and Area which are some of the best representative Italian bands in the 70’s. It seems the old tradition continue in our days with bands like Il Bacio Della Medusa, Universal Totem Orchestra, Finisterre, Hostsonaten, La Machera Di Cera and Ingranaggi Della Valle.

Il Bacio Della Medusa (The Kiss Of The Medusa), riding the wave of inspiration of their first album, immediately begins the work of what will be, so far, their most popular album, “Descent Agli’Inferi D’Un Giovane Amante” (Descent To Hell Of A Young Lover) . This is a real rock opera, a mature, passionate and dramatic, conceptual album inspired by the V canto of the Inferno of “The Divine Comedy” written by the great Dante Alighieri. In short, we can say the concept of the album is about two lovers, Paolo and Francesca and their thoughts when they follow their path of descent to Hell.

Musically, the sounds are more elegant than the previous one, thanks to the presence of the Rinchi violin and the Petrini keyboards. The work is masterful and full of intensity and density, and the arrangements of the band are excellent. Times and styles are perfectly and harmoniously alternated, between bloodless and dreamy ballads, classical accompaniments typical of symphonic prog and hard-folk incursions. The interactions between the instruments are numerous. The courtly and poetic texts host copious rhetorical figures and are written and interpreted with emphasis, also thanks to a broad ductility of the song that perfectly transmits the emotions experienced by the narrated subjects.

All tracks flow together without breaks, adding the sense it unfolds like a grand play. An often obscure music, conducted by the omnipresent organ and a guitar also hard, often embellished by a delicate flute and, to underline, the most touching moments of the story, a poignant violin and a guitar. Here and there we can hear some valuable folk insertions, which soften a little the subtle restlessness hovers between the notes and the lyrics. The notes of the sad and romantic “Preludioi: Il Trapasso” lead us into the esoteric atmosphere that will accompany our soul for the whole journey among the underworld. The “Confessione D’Un Amante”, sustained by the expansive melancholy of the instruments, is that of the suffering of Paolo. With “La Bestia E Il Delirio” the rhythm is raised immediately thanks to a low-flute unison, which we will often find throughout the album. In “Recitativo: É Nel Buio Che Risplendono Le Stelle” the flute, marching with the other instruments, opens to a marvelous and at the same time disturbing poem. A detachment and a change of rhythm introduce “Ricordi Del Supplizio”, one of the grittiest pieces of the album. “Nostalgia, Pentimento E Rabbia” initially relaxes us, through sounds of medieval appeal, and then reinvigorates itself. Following is the instrumental “Sudorazione A Freddo Sotto Il Chiaro Di Luna” where a certain point the rhythms subsided, leaving room for more rarefied atmospheres. Then, let’s go through the verses of Cecchini on the epic “Melencolia”, where we estimate the acoustic sounds of a guitar that we find partly in “E Fu Allora Che Dalle Fiamme Mi Sorprese Una Calda Brezza Celeste”, with the kaleidoscopic Cecchini at the tenor sax. We continue instrumentally in the following tracks, “Nosce Te Ipsum - La Bestia Ringhia in Noi”, in which violin and percussion alternate with keyboard rides. We end with sad, melancholic and solemn atmospheres, guided by the Rinchi violin that is enhanced in this final. Mere vocalizations without words accompany “Corale Per Messa Da Requiem” and in “Epilogo: Conclusione Della Discesa Agl’inferi D’un Giovane Amante” the main theme is taken back with the sadness and the beauty together.


Conclusion: The second studio album of Il Bacio Della Medusa is a mature work, refined and enthralling at the same time. They made an album in which not only the sounds, they pass from the melancholic and dark atmospheres to the purest prog sound or symphonic with an astonishing ease, but also the same voice by Cecchini, they seem to come directly from the 70’s. The strong bond with the past isn’t a question of pure imitation, but a respectful appeal, like the deferential relationship of a believer with his own God. This has to be up there with the best of the retro-Italian prog rock I’ve heard in the last years with “Mathematical Mother” of Universal Totem Orchestra”. With these albums we can see that prog rock is very alive and why Italian Progressive Rock is responsible for some of the best prog rock albums.


Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)

Tweet

Recent reviews by this author
Finch (NL) Glory of the Inner Force	Camel Mirage
Carmen Dancing on a Cold Wind	David Bowie The Man Who Sold the World
Peter Baumann Romance 76	Tangerine Dream Rubycon

user ratings (16)

rate it Awful - 1 Very Poor - 1.5 Poor - 2 Average - 2.5 Good - 3 Great - 3.5 Excellent - 4 Superb - 4.5 Classic - 5

4 excellent

Rank: #0 for 2008