DISQUIETING MIRRORS

Quel Che Disse Il Tuono came to life in 2019 in Milan, Italy on the initiative of Francesca Zanetta (guitar, keyboards - founder member of Unreal City), Roberto Bernasconi (bass, lead vocals) and Alessio Del Ben (drums, keyboards, backing vocals), soon joined by Niccolò Gallani (keyboards, flute, backing vocals - also member of Cellar Noise). The name of the band means “what the thunder said” and is a tribute to the poetry of T.S. Elliot. Their main sources of inspiration come from the Italian prog masters of the seventies but they blend vintage sounds with their modern, original sensitivity without trying to reproduce the past. The band’s first album, entitled Il velo dei riflessi, was released in 2020 on the independent label AMS Records and is a complex conceptual work dealing in a metaphorical way with the problem of schizophrenia and mental illness.

In fact, according to the band, the music and lyrics tell the story of a man who finds himself alone in an unknown room, surrounded by large cracked mirrors. A human figure is trapped in each mirror, which turns out to be the personification of a hidden, repressed personality trait of the protagonist himself. Each pathological personality trait is like a separate entity that wants to get out of the mirror to reunite with the protagonist who has to accept this new reality. Eventually, the protagonist realizes that all these ghostly, decadent subjects have always been a part of him. What follows is a mutual recognition, the breaking of the mirrors and the full affirmation of a human being aware of his complexity and now lost in a vortex of multiple consciences, no longer able to recognize and distinguish what is real from what is not.

To be honest, the thread of the concept is not easy to follow and the lyrics are more like brush strokes of colour depicting impressionistic images than narrative instruments... The opener “Il paradigma dello specchio (Primo specchio)” (The paradigm of the mirror – First mirror) sets the atmosphere. There’s a thunder, the mood is dark... The protagonist observes his dark reflected image in a mirror and falls under its spell while time stands still. Then the rhythm rises and, preceded by a martial marching beat, the ethereal image of a young soldier in a white armour appears, his eyes are dull, a mask of clay with a scarlet knife look at the helpless body of his father...

 

It’s the turn of “Figlio dell’uomo (Secondo specchio)” (Son of man – Second mirror) that begins by a disquieting instrumental part. Then, on a strummed acoustic guitar passage, soaring vocals evoke dark omens of impending madness and a raging inner conflict through a magical symbolism... When the rhythm takes off the singing unveils hidden poems lost in oblivion, like spirits without memory and identity. There are some changes in mood and rhythm, then a glance towards the sky allows you to see the vision of a man in his Eden who is running away from a place where daylight erases his dreams, where time is merciless and the faces he can see are nothing but opaque mirrors...

“Chi ti cammina accanto? (Terzo specchio)” (Who walks beside you? - Third mirror) starts softly, the atmosphere is eerie while the seducing words of a myriad of shadows coming out from the dark slowly draw the protagonist into a Dionysian vertigo that blurs the differences between dream and reality, leading him into a delirium of power where he feels like a god in an artificial paradise...

Quel Che Disse Il Tuono on stage, 2021

Next comes “Il bastone e il serpente (Quarto specchio)” (The club and the snake – Fourth mirror) where the music and words conjure up an alien world crowded with nightmares where fairies dance in the fire and a dark soul haunts a night made of nothing. Ruler of an empty kingdom, the protagonist experiences the illusion of being eternal as the rhythm takes off and soaring keyboards evoke the flight of a glider in a sky full of counterpoints...

The long, complex final track “Loro sono me (Catarsi)” (They are me – Catharsis) mixes hard rock and operatic influences for an epilogue that is in the same time a dirge and a soothing breeze of consolation. Many distant voices of archangels and sirens, symbolizing the different personalities of the protagonist, come together and blend into a solemn choir to claim their freedom... Eventually, another thunder ends an album that is really worth listening to.

On the whole, an excellent work!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Quel Che Disse Il Tuono: Il velo dei riflessi (2020). Other opinions:
Nick Hudson: This is a truly magnificent album, taking all that was great about the classic years of Rock Progressivo Italiano, and propelling it forward into today. It has all the retro charm you could wish for, with the production values classic RPI usually lacked... (Read the complete review HERE)

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