Alphataurus
Alphataurus

Alphataurus is one of those many bands with a very short discographic life that have been placed in the progressive category.
It is a Milanese quintet composed of:

- Michele Bavaro on vocals
- Pietro Pellegrini on keyboards, vibraphone, and synthesizer
- Giorgio Santandrea on drums
- Guido Wassermann on guitar
- Alfonso Oliva on drums

Here is their debut album (and also the only one if we exclude a subsequent collection of demos "Dietro l'uragano"), which consists of five tracks among which the opener, "Peccato d'orgoglio" and "La mente vola", stand out. Let's start with "Peccato d'orgoglio", 12 minutes and 23 seconds long, where a guitar arpeggio accompanies Bavaro's voice and in the purely instrumental moments, keyboards and synthesizer dominate. Certainly, the lyrics may be a bit too abstract, but it seems to suggest an invitation to a person to accept their mistakes, to not remain hostage to their blind pride.

"A ricominciare
qualcuno ti aiuterà
per chi torna indietro
vergogna non c'è
credevi di avere
il mondo in un pugno
ma un pugno di semi
non può darti la realtà"

And this is the text in the hardest part of the track that acts as a forerunner to the entire album.

Even in the second song "Dopo l'uragano", with certainly not cheerful lyrics, there are passages tending towards hard rock. The third track is the instrumental "Croma", where Pietro Pellegrini showcases his talent with the keyboards, short but intense.

"La mente vola", which I consider the peak moment of the album, opens with a good 3 and a half minutes of pleasantly hammering keyboards, then slides into delicate piano arpeggios. The voice has also changed: it is the keyboardist Pellegrini who sings over the piano. The lyrics are an exhortation not to live in the past and to be very aware of oneself ("la mente vola, non ti conosci più", "ti guardi in un ruscello sei proprio tu") and above all to have faith and hope in God ("lassù qualcuno c'è", "una ragione per vivere c'è"). 

The album concludes with "Ombra Muta", rich in solos and complex, where Bavaro's voice narrates to us about this mute shadow that helps to start over, after the mistakes made. It can therefore be said that in a certain way all the songs are linked by a common thread as a subject and manage to introduce us to a specific atmosphere.

Finally, I don't want to ignore the magnificent cover depicting a dove that, holding an olive branch in its beak, drops bombs toward the ground.