A Piedi Nudi - Creazione

Year of Release: 1995
Label: Mellow Records
Catalog Number: MMP 269
Format: CD
Total Time: 51:28:00

If you like traditional Italian progressive, you may well enjoy this powerful release by A Piedi Nudi. If, on the other hand, you enjoy guitar driven, metalish progressive rock, then you may like this crunching release by Italian band, A Piedi Nudi. Both these aspects of progressive rock are represented on Creazione. This sounds a lot like Le Orme or Loccanda Della Fate on steroids with John Petrucci on guitar. Well, almost.

This is an interesting release by a very interesting band. Their sound is very 70s like, but the guitar is straight out of the 90s. The music here is complex, stop and start prog., with the basis of the music being led by the keyboards, and highly charged guitar on top. This may sound like a contradiction of musical terms, but it actually works out quite well. The bands music reminds me of old style Italian prog., with speedy, sweep picking, distorted guitar licks, which add to the overall complexity and interest of the music, rather than detracting from what has been, generally, a very laid back and melodious musical tradition.

One problem with this, and I admit that you may well see this as nitpicking, is the their guitarist, Nicola Gardinale, at some points, over reaches the extent of his abilities. To pull off the kind of licks he attempts, one must have exquisite control and touch. If there is even the slightest failure in execution of licks such as are heard on Creazione, then it will be immediately noticeable. Over thirty years of extremely critical, ok, maybe hyper-critical, examination of guitar players and their chops will lead me to be more demanding than the average music listener, but I have noticed this slight shortcoming, nevertheless.

Since I have taken the time to point out what I see as a minor flaw in this generally good release, it is only fair to point out what I see as a very good and interesting addition to the sound of the band. That is the presense of a French Horn player on this release. This may now really seem to be a weird mix. Quite the contrary, this odd mix all works well together, and this is a pretty strong album, and one that will inspire me to acquire more discs by this group.

The music is pretty impressive, and it may take a couple of listens to get a good grasp of what is going on in the music, which is certainly not uncommon in progressive rock. This music is chock full of urgent time and tempo changes, complex song construction, and a plethora of ripping guitar solos and some very nice keyboard work. If you are a huge fan of keyboards, like I am, you might be a disappointed that nearly all the soloing is from the guitarist, but there are some very nice organ and synthesizer textures, and the guitar is mainly used for ornamentation over a solid foundation laid down by keyboardist Cristian Chinaglia.

All in all, this is a pretty cool release from A Piedi Nudi. And for those who like little tidbits of info, I tried to figure out what this band?s name means, and I came up with, if my syntax is correct, knots on feet, or perhaps calloused feet. Hmmmmm? Wonder what the basis for that name is? For me anyway, that just makes it all more interesting.

Tracklisting:
Momorie (12:47) / Partenza (5:00) / Lingo Il Sentiero (5:19) / Regina Del Torrente (8:20) / Dea Della Rocce, Signore Del Vento (4:37) / Creazione (4:02) / Nuova Vita (6:11) / La Ballerina (5:07)

Musicians:
Carlo Bighetti - Vocals, Drums, Flute
Nicola Gardinale - Guitar
Cristian Chinaglia - Keyboards
Simone Bighetti - Bass
Enrico Barchetta - French Horn

Discography:
A Piedi Nudi (1994)
Creazione (1995)
Eclissi (1997)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin IT

Added: April 18th 2004
Reviewer: Tom Karr
Score:
Hits: 4498
Language: english