DARK OMENS

Butterfly System come from Trento and were formed in 2015 by Michele D'Alberto (keyboards, vocals), Claudio Granatiero (bass, guitar, lead vocals, Taurus – former vocalist of Phaedra) and Claudio Cassol (drums, keyboards) with the aim of performing live progressive rock covers of bands such as Le Orme or EL&P and some original stuff. After a good live activity on the local scene and a hard work in their rehearsal room, in 2020 they self-released an interesting debut EP entitled Presagi (Omens), a mini concept album about child abuse featuring three original pieces for a total of more than 22 minutes.

The tense opener “Cenni di tempesta” (Signs of a storm) introduces the subject matter. The music and lyrics conjure up the image of a careless eight year old child laying on a meadow looking at the white clouds running in the sky, than this image melts like in a distant dream. Now the child is an adult who has lost his innocence, he can see nothing but the signs of a storm in the sky of his life and the clouds seem just dark omens about his future...

The disquieting “Stai con me” (Stay with me) deals with the painful memories of an abused child, wounds that time won’t heal. The music and lyrics evoke old fears and the wish for revenge of the child once grown up. There is a strong link between the physical, sexual or psychological maltreatment of children and the development of psychiatric problems and in some way you can feel it listening to the music that every now and again could recall the dark atmosphere of Goblin’s album Profondo Rosso...

Butterfly System 2020

“La fortezza” (The fortress) depicts a gloomy inner shelter where self-isolation is the last refuge against a world crowded with evil people and full of every kind of danger. High pitched vocals on the border of hysteria evoke the refusal to accept reality by building up an imaginary world that can drive you on the brink of madness. Now the abused child is a man who won’t let the world in on the secrets of his heart. Anger, shame and despair can lead to depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies or other and the child’s adaptive or protective mechanisms have become self-defeating leaving a wounded child within the adult but the music and lyrics try just to describe a state of mind: the conclusions are up to you...

On the whole, excellent music and a challenging conceptual work. A very promising debut!

You can listen to the complete EP HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/Icona74/

FLOWERS AND KITES

Kite is the second album by Roman band Camelias Garden and it was self-released in 2015 with a largely renewed line up featuring Valerio Smordoni (lead and backing vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar), Simone Contini (drums) and Alberto Cari (bass) plus the guests Manolo D'Antonio (electric and acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and Gian Marco La Serra (piano, keyboards, backing vocals). It was recorded between 2014 and 2015 at Kate Creative Studio, LRS Factory and Studio Nero (Rome) and confirms the good qualities of their debut album from 2013 entitled You Have a Chance, with its light harmonies and refined arrangements mixing echoes of sixties psychedelia and pastoral atmospheres. The artwork by Isabella Latini in some way depicts the musical content...

The opener “Rise” is a short acoustic ballad with strummed acoustic guitar, a slightly pinch of psychedelia and soaring harmony vocals that could recall The Beatles. It describes a new dawn, a peaceful moment to start a day full of expectations and leads to the following “Making Things Together” veined of West Coast influences and positive vibrations that tells about a love story on the road...

The long, evocative title track has a slow pace and a dark, romantic mood. It describes in music and words a strange meeting in a cold starry night conjuring up visions where dreams and reality melt like if they were following the flight of a kite with its ups and downs: blind, light, beyond the limit of what’s real on a frame of subtle skies...

The soft, dreamy “Red Light” is about a kind of psychedelic trip through a beautiful place full of flowers and trees where a charming girl could drive you mad playing with colours and blending the red light of the rising sun with the magic of the surrounding nature. 

“The World Inside You” is another ballad with strummed acoustic guitars and percussions in the background that could recall the Beatles, especially in its final part. It’s about a kind of spiritual rebirth and evokes the inner power that everyone owns and that can heal the injuries of life... Then the closer “Useless” mixes a touch of electronic, modern sounds and filtered vocals with a pinch of spirituality and oriental philosophy.

Although defined as a simple EP the album reaches almost half an hour length and it’s longer than may albums from the sixties or the seventies. All in all, a pleasant listening.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/cameliasgarden

MEMORIES FROM THE PRESENT

After a long hiatus, Juglans Regia are back with new energies and ideas. In 2019, more than ten years after their previous album, Visioni parallele (2008), the band from Sesto Fiorentino released an interesting EP entitled Memorie dal presente (Memories from the present) with the original line up featuring Alessandro Parigi (vocals), Antonello Collini (guitar), David Carretti (drums), Lapo Martini (keyboards) and Massimiliano Dionigi (bass). After all this time their friendship is still intact and the flame of their passion burning to give form to their personal mix of hard rock, metal and prog. The evocative artwork by Sara Parigi can give you the idea of a motivated band ready to seize the moment...

The powerful opener, “L’imperdonabile” (The unforgivable), is a kind of manifesto of the band’s come back where the music and lyrics invite you to stand up facing the difficulties of life, fighting for your dreams to come true. If you fall get up, it would be a pity to give up without try hard again, unforgivable! Electric guitar riffs and keyboard waves wash out illusions and deceptions backed by a solid rhythm section...

The following “Maschere” (Masks) alternates raging parts to lighter passages depicting a sensation of solitude and alienation: even in the middle of a crowd e person could feel absent and distant from reality, other people pass by hiding themselves behind appearances, time runs out... But the music you love can still stir your emotions and set you free from the chains of an ordinary life. All you have to do is open the doors and follow the harmonic tracks in the air you breathe...

Next comes “Primo istinto” (First instinct), my favourite track on this album. It begins softly by a delicate piano passage and a soaring electric guitar solo, the mood is dreamy but as the vocals come in the dream turns into a nightmare, the rhythm rises, the atmosphere becomes dark and disquieting... The cryptic lyrics evoke something threatening coming up to the surface from under your skin, the fear of the dark and of the unknown, you catch a strange look in the people staring at you, then there’s an explosion as your soul separates from the body... 

“Le virgole del tempo” (The commas of time) closes the album with bursts of energy and some reflective moments. The music and lyrics evoke nocturnal landscapes where rain, fog and darkness fall down covering unavoidable secrets and vain ambitions, pushing you to reflection. Eventually the border between dreams and reality melts under the thundering sky of this restless, mysterious night...

On the whole, a very good album. Welcome back Juglans Regia, don’t give up!

You can listen to the complete EP HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/juglansregiaband/

UNDERGROUND TRIP

Hailing from Milan, Cellar Noise took shape in 2013 on the initiative of Alessandro Palmisano and Niccolò Gallani with the aim of blending  classic seventies prog with modern influences in their new original compositions. Once found the right formula, after some line up changes and a good live activity on the local scene, in 2017 the band released an interesting debut album on the independent label AMS/BTF entitled Alight, a conceptual work about a surreal trip on a London Underground train. It was recorded, mixed and mastered at the Zerodieci Studio in Genoa with the help of Fabio Zuffanti, Luca Nasciuti and Roberto Vigo and with a line up featuring founder members Alessandro Palmisano (guitars) and Niccolò Gallani (piano, organ, synthesizer, Mellotron) along with Francesco Lovari (lead and backing vocals), Loris Bersan (bass, classical guitar) and Eric Bersan (drums, percussion) plus some special guests such as Chiara Alberti (cello), Luca Tarantino (oboe) and Giulia Zanardo (flute) who gave their contribute during the recoding sessions to enrich the sound. The result is very good...

The opener “Dive With Me” is a long, beautiful instrumental track that sets the atmosphere and starts by the sounds of an underground station. As by magic, a charming music rises from those confused sounds... Then it’s the turn of “Underground Ride” that conjures up the image of a man, a commuter wrapped in his own thoughts and fed up by the daily grind. He gets lost in a kind of parallel world and you’re invited to follow the trip of the protagonist diving into his dream. The art work by Francesca Serpi might give you an idea of the scene... “Once he got on the train, he started to observe the names of the stops printed on the signs. As he watched, the words came to life and started to fuse with the visions from his imagination. Each name generated different places, characters and stories that moved in the dreamlike dimension as the train moved on...” (quote from the liner notes).

“Embankment” begins by a delicate piano pattern, then the music veers from a dreamy mood to Gothic atmospheres. The music and lyrics tell the story of a girl that day after day meets the ghost of a beautiful young man during her commuting trips in the subway and finally establishes a contact. Then she jumps from the train to follow him in the world of spirits, the afterlife. A wonderful track and a very strange way to depict a suicide on the underground rails...

Cellar Noise 2017

The following “Temple” starts by a classical guitar arpeggio, then the atmosphere becomes dark and the rhythm slowly rises while the lyrics evoke the stage of a crumbling, abandoned opera theatre. The shadow of an old caretaker slowly moves around, drawn into a whirlwind of emotions and memories for a last, tragic show...

The nervous, aggressive “Blackfriars” conjures up images of riots and rebellious acts contrasting with the words of unscrupulous politicians disguised in men of peace who try to canalize hate and manipulate the crowd... The it’s the turn of the calm, introspective “Move The Stone” where the visions seem to stop for a while and a frozen, hidden memory emerges as the protagonist comes back to reality...

The closer “Monument” is the last stop of the journey, a piece where music and lyrics try to depict the new awareness of the protagonist and convey a healing feeling of freedom. For him it’s time to take another train and a new direction leaving behind the chains of his false self and grey routine...

On the whole, an interesting concept and a beautiful album...

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Alight (2017): Other opinions:

Michael “Aussie-Byrd-Brother”: Cellar Noise's 2016 debut `Alight' is an absolute symphonic knockout beginning to end, lyrically being an observation on the mundanity of modern life but managing both stark and hopeful themes, and a work that perfectly blends vintage prog-rock and current sounds… (Read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/cellarnoise/