SWORD AND SANDAL

The Delphic Prophecy is the third album by Gran Torino, an interesting prog band from Verona. It was released in 2020 on the French label Musea Records, seven years after their previous work Fate Of A Thousand Worlds (2013), with a renewed line up featuring the confirmed Alessio Pieri (keyboards), Gian Maria Roveda (drums) and Fabrizio Visentini (bass) with the prog veteran David Cremoni (guitars – from, among others, Moongarden and Submarine Silence) who took the place of Leonardo Freggi. According to the band, the album was conceived as a sort of soundtrack for an imaginary journey through Ancient Greek mythology and the art cover by Pablo Elices tries to depict the musical content...

 

The dreamy opener “Ondine” starts softly by a piano solo pattern, then the electric guitar takes the lead evoking dangerous, soulless creatures wandering slowly under the moon... The title refers to the water nymphs that appeared in the Aegean Sea under the form of beautiful women but in the booklet there are no liner notes with a guideline to follow, so the plot of this imaginary peplum film is up to your imagination! 

 

The mysterious “Faint Dimness” conjures up nocturnal landscapes and threatening shadows, then the disquieting “The Sibylline Oracle” evokes the feeling of an impending trick of the destiny. In the oracles the Sibyl predicts future events and here the priestess seems to prophesy disaster... 

 

 

The suggestive “From Lust To Shame” flows steadily through martial rhythms and exotic flavours while the following “A Gentle Soul” is reflective and dreamy. “After The Cure” is a piece with some echoes of new wave and a dark, Gothic sound that seems chiselled by a smith... 

 

Then the melancholic “Faded Elation” leads to title track and to the mysteries of the oracle of Delphi. “The Delphic Prophecy” is a wonderful track that every now and again recalls seventies atmospheres and black and white TV series... Then it’s the turn of the nervous “Ancient Labyrinth” where we can follow the thread of Arianna or admire Dedalo’s bold, clever plans to escape. “Ethereal Noise” closes the album with some nice soaring electric guitar parts and some hypnotic keyboard passages. 

 

On the whole, a good album, especially recommended if you like bands such as L’Ombra della Sera... 

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

http://www.grantorinoband.it/ 

https://www.facebook.com/Gran-Torino-music-band-116388991763308/ 

THE MASTER OF TIME

Fate Of A Thousand Worlds is the second album by Gran Torino, an interesting prog band from Verona. It was released in 2013 on the French label Musea Records, two years after the promising debut grantorinoProg, with a renewed line up featuring Alessio Pieri (keyboards, piano), Gian Maria Roveda (drums), Fabrizio Visentini (bass) and Leonardo Freggi (guitars). According to the band's website, this is a conceptual work about a man who travels in space and in real time throughout the universe that is based on a short sci-fi story written by one of their friends, Paolo Gadioli, that you can find in the booklet and that's also mirrored in the beautiful art work created by Ed Unitsky. The music was conceived as a soundtrack to describe the adventures, emotions and torments of the protagonist...

The opener, "Child of the Stars", sets the atmosphere and introduces the protagonist, Velasquez, a kind of super-hero created by a superior race whose mission is to conquer the whole universe. His birth required a huge amount of energy that was obtained by destroying a planet... The music starts softly, then the rhythm gradually rises, calms down for a while and rises again, powerful and threatening...

Then comes the frenzied "Absolute Time". Here every now and again I'm reminded of bands such EL&P and Goblin... The merciless protagonist can travel through space and time and when he finds a planet inhabited by a superior race he can go back to an era when that civilization was not so evolute and can't resist to his powers...

"The Battle of Velasquez" is a dark, powerful track that could recall some passages from Darwin! by Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. It's a perfect score for the destructive actions of the protagonist who defeats powerful armies and ravages fortified cities. It leads to the following "Dead Suns" where you can hear the great poem of the extinguished suns and the last pulses of the worlds swept away by Velasquez...

The melancholic "The Fog of Time" describes the feeling of loneliness and deep sadness of the protagonist. Velasquez can't find anyone who can match him. They call him just the child of the stars, they fear him, they hate him... Next comes "Empty Soul" that tries to capture in music the strange feeling that the protagonist experiences by approaching a new planet: it's just like a deep emptiness in his soul. So, he begins to observe this new planet, to explore it from above...

Gran Torino 2014

The delicate, romantic "Arìda" is a piano solo track that describes the meeting between Velasquez and a beautiful woman called Arìda who lives on the mysterious planet. The heartless protagonist finally falls in love and the following "The Short Dream" describes in some way this complicate, unsettling romance...

"End of a Planet" breaks the dream, the rhythm rises suggesting an impending danger, something is going to happen. Suddenly Velasques has to go back in his spaceship, there's something wrong... As he gets on board the planet blows up and his love is lost forever... Here the music reminds me slightly of other two planets in a distant solar system, hidden behind the jewellery of a thousand stars and forests of coral...

The title track, "Fate of a Thousand Worlds", ends the album describing the dark thoughts of the protagonist, condemned to live alone in his immense spaceship, master of time, master of the universe... Master of nothing!

On the whole, this is an excellent instrumental album and the music is really worth listening to. Have a try, even if you don't like the storyline!

Gran Torino: Fate Of A Thousand Worlds (2013). Other opinions:

Mark Johnson: The musicianship is inspired and unique sounding enough to set this band apart from the many instrumental prog bands that roam the universe. Imagine all of the things that you might encounter on a journey through the universe. Without lyrics you are left to your imagination... and sometimes that can provide its own horrors as well as inspirations... (read the complete review HERE)

Pedro Bekkers: Gran Torino have made a lot of progression compared to their debut. With the replacement of the guitarist they moved the bar up by a few notches and forced themselves to create more challenging compositions shifting toward a heavier prog rock or prog metal style. With an album like Fate Of A Thousand Worlds Gran Torino may be very proud of themselves! They can face the future with confidence... (read the cmplete review HERE)

More info:

http://www.grantorinoband.it/ 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gran-Torino-prog-band/116388991763308 

ON THE ROCKS

Gran Torino come from Verona and their roots date back to 2000 when Cristiano Pallaoro (guitars), Alessio Pieri (keyboards, piano), Gian Maria Roveda (drums) and Fabrizio Visentini Visas (bass) started to play for fun as a cover band. In 2009 they began to work on a more ambitious project featuring only original compositions blending influences of bands such as PFM, Genesis, Spock's Beard or Kansas with a personal touch. In 2011 they finally released an interesting debut album on the Swiss independent label Galileo Records, “grantorinoProg”, featuring ten instrumental tracks and a nice art work by Mark Wilkinson. The band showcase here an excellent musicianship and the music flows away like a river on the rocks with a great interplay between keyboards and guitar and a pulsing rhythm section in the background.

Although all the tracks are completely instrumental the band provided some short liner notes for every track, just to give you an idea of what the music is about. The opener “Sinapsi” is full of obscure energy and invites you to dream and vibrate to the rhythm of music... “You sleep but you can hear it. You don't know what is it, but you know it is real...”. Some passages recall Goblin and are painted in disquieting deep red colours. The following “Jack Montorio” tries to evoke a search for tranquillity that drives you far away from home and an emotional storm due to a broken relationship. On the powerful “Rock Waters” the electric guitar comes alive while the music is in some way related to the images of the art cover. Next comes “Joy” where the band mix Eastern flavoured harmonies with neoclassical influences inviting you to seize the day.

“Miridiana” is another excellent track full of colours. A mysterious woman paints her face with red eastern dust and looks towards the horizon while ancient maps resurface in her mind... “Fox Box” is frenzied, claustrophobic. You can run and jump like a fox in a box but you can't break through because the only freedom is in your mind. For this track the band shot a video set in the Roman theatre of Verona.

“Five” is a nice short acoustic track that leads to the aggressive “Radio Vox” where the electric guitar is the protagonist. The following “Eco” recalls Goblin once again with its suggestive atmosphere and its dark organ rides backed by the rhythm section. The long final track, “Zorro”, starts calmly, the mood is dreamy, nocturnal... “A mask hides your face, a sword defends your feelings. Harmony takes away the mask, melody defeats the sword, and you fly on the wings of your instrument...”.

Well, all in all I think that this is a very good album where the musicians managed to express all their great passion for the music they love without sounding too retro.

Gran Torino: grantorinoProg (2011). Other opinions:

Jon Neudorf: All four musicians are very good and the band has plenty of chops but they don't go overboard with excessive noodling and can slow it down when the need arises. That said, there are lots of tempo changes and stop/starts that demand your attention. Heavy guitar riffs abound and the band's hard rock beginnings shine through often although the music never gets too heavy. You will hear lots of interplay between guitar and keys and both instruments shine throughout... grantorinoProg is a fine debut release from a band that should have a bright future as long as they continue to move forward and carve their own niche. Nice stuff indeed... (read the complete review HERE).

Vitaly Menshikov: What may initially seem as a certain sameness in the band’s music (due to the fixed instrumentation and the aforementioned similarity in the development of tracks as well), will fade on subsequent listens, as the subtle complexities of the arrangements reveal themselves... This disc is an auspicious debut for the quartet to appear on Top-20 lists of many art-rock and related publications this year. I think only those who are exclusively into the most complicated forms of the genre (e.g. King Crimson, early ‘70s Van Der Graaf Generator, Yes circa 1973-’74) might omit it in this respect... (read the complete review HERE).

More info:

http://www.grantorinoband.it/

http://www.myspace.com/grantorinoprog

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gran-Torino-prog-band/116388991763308