Areknames
Love Hate Round Trip

THE REVIEW

Again Italy...

Again a masterpiece...

Once again from our beautiful country comes a new capable band that still has a great deal to say in a genre many consider dead and buried: prog rock...

Well, Areknamès are here to silence all the detractors in this field who think prog rock is just inside out; and they do so with this stunning and amazing second album (the first, same title, came out 2 years ago also for Black Widow).

"Love Hate Round Trip" is a journey through time that takes us straight to the prog-rock era of the fabulous '70s; it stands with one foot in local prog: that of seminal acts like Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and PFM; and the other in English prog: like other legends such as Emerson Lake & Palmer, or early Genesis. The skill of these artists does not only lie in knowing how to pick up the lessons of the aforementioned masters but also in knowing how to translate it into a modern context; so much so that the album does not come across as a work out of time but rather as a work with its feet firmly planted in the present...

You can catch glimpses of Pink Floyd reminiscences, especially in the use of the voice (very Gilmour-like) and in the use of certain keyboards and harmonies that create that lysergic and sometimes dreamy atmosphere typical of the aforementioned band, as in the fabulous "Deceit" which after a dissonant opening reveals all its beauty with a caressing voice and melodies that splendid is an understatement, creating a tangled web that opens up, implodes, slithers, and then concludes with an almost funereal ending (where you can hear doom influences of yesteryears), but perfectly fitting. We were saying with its feet firmly planted in the present; well... yes! In some tracks, you can hear parts that strongly recall the genius of Arcturus, for example; "Outcast", the third track of the album, in its electronic and theatrical psychedelia strongly recalls the Norwegian band; or the opener "The Skeletal Landscape of the World" is a tangle of almost metallic impacts that bring to mind the genius of A Perfect Circle... And then there's the stunning semi-ballad "Yet I Must Be Something" that fills the spirit and the heart with its delicate ascending harmonies!

There's room for a cover amid such sophistication, "Snails" by Gnidrolog (I must say I really didn't know this 70s prog band) which, however, almost takes a backseat compared to such majesty of harmonies (the grand finale of Ignis Fatus takes you far, literally to another dimension, with its discontinuous tempos and hyperspace atmospheres that, in the juxtaposition of such different atmospheres, recall the latest King Crimson) of melodies never cloying and always thrilling (which sometimes remind one of the soaring flights of the Mahavishnu Orchestra), of jazz tangles here and there, with winds prominently displayed to create majestic, dark, and melancholic atmospheres that fill the heart and not just the mind.

I could go on at length, detailing the beauty of each individual track, but I would risk going on too long. Areknamès take a genre many consider already dead, but they update it, giving it a completely new form enough to create a work that is both out of time and current at the same time, enabling it to fly and float without hesitation, already from now, in the lake of legendary records!