|
It’s great when a band has been around for a while and
continues to produce music that is interesting and even challenging.
Such is the case with Italy’s Presence. They’ve been around
since the early nineties producing a heavier progressive rock
with dark and moody overtones. And I’m happy to report they’re
back with their seventh official release entitled Evil Rose.
This time around Presence consists of Sophya Baccini (vocals),
Sergio Casamassima (electric & bass guitars), Enrico Iglio
(keyboards) with special guest Valerio Silenzi (drums) to
round out the rhythm section. I guess many would categorize
the music of Presence as kind of a gothic, symphonic progressive
rock. They’re certainly grand and majestic when they choose
to be and then almost chamber prog the next moment although
their music tends to favor the more aggressive melodic side
of things. A good many of the discs nine-tracks are on the
longish side with the multi-part epic title track “Evil Rose”
coming in at 18:35. As I mentioned at the beginning, the general
tone is dark and moody, with many haunting passages that are
heightened by Sophya Baccini’s operatic-like vocals. She clearly
sets the tone and guides the listener through the multi-faceted
compositions. When I said the music could be grand, there
are many moments where orchestrated keyboard strings and choirs
present a panoramic epic sweep that sends shivers up the spine.
But then just as easily the band will turn-on-a-dime and become
quite aggressive with guitars and acoustic piano. It’s all
very dramatic and quite pleasing to the ear. Presence has
chosen to do a couple covers this time around; Queen’s “The
Prophet Song” (9:00) and Rainbow’s “Gates of Babylon” (7:10)
and on both tracks they’ve put their own distinctive musical
stamp. Having said all that about the keyboards make no mistake
those guitars play a major part of the band’s sound and style.
They’re very much on display on “Subterreans” (6:09) along
with some very ELP-ish sounding Hammond organ. And that’s
just a small sample of what you’ll hear; overall there is
a tremendous variety of musical sounds both hard, soft and
lots in-between on Evil Rose.
Fans of Presence won’t take much persuading to pick up
Evil Rose, but I’d encourage all of you newbie’s, who enjoy
the harder-edged side of progressive rock, that still emphasizes
the symphonic to look into the band. This disc especially
has a lot of great music for everyone’s taste and you shouldn’t
be disappointed.
|
