Bengala Fire
La Band

These days I have talked about the best album (so far) and the big surprise of 2024. Now, unfortunately, it's time to talk about the biggest disappointment.

I would say "so far" but it was so huge that the chances of it being surpassed are infinitesimal (Just because the expectations were too high indeed).

The biggest disappointment was Bengala Fire, a band that participated in X-Factor in 2021, and that I have adored since then.

I care very little about talent competitions; I'm only interested in finding interesting cues to follow once the mere TV show is over. So the fact that they came third doesn't really matter to me, but their performances on stage with frontman Mattia Mariuzzo certainly warmed me up.

You know that classic kind of a crazy singer who jumps, dances, runs on stage throughout the whole show but still has a great voice? That’s Mattia.

Once the journey was over, they went silent for a while until they released, after some time, their first songs: "Valencia," "Amaro Mio," "Jack (Non sa)," and "Matador," to which were then added "Bobby Eroina" and "Serenissima Malcontenta."

I really liked the first 4 songs, especially "Jack (Non sa)," which led me to write my first review on Instagram, to which even Bengala themselves responded (they were among the 20 total maximum people who saw that review) and right after with "Matador" they confirmed they had taken a good path, one that would establish them in the Italian Rock-Punk scene that has been lacking for some time.

With these expectations, and with these songs, I anxiously awaited the new album, only to discover in January (when the work was released) that of those beautiful songs that made me a fan, there was only Matador... everything else: the other two previously mentioned tracks, in my opinion, were not up to par, and all the rest were new.

Now... generally, the fact that an album is all new is a good thing, I would be happy, if only the quality of the new songs wasn't decisively inferior to the discarded tracks.

From wanting to be exponents of international punk, with well-done English songs, they decided to discard them completely and only include Italian tracks, excluding the first and best.

The result is "La Band," a raw and bland album, that I would expect from a rookie band that has such tracks in their repertoire and can't help but include them...

Even the audio quality... well, some tracks sound very "Artisanal" whereas in the excluded songs the production generally seemed better to me...

rather than "La Band" I would have called it "Garage Band" because that's the impact it gives.

I mean... the arrangements are nice, I like the guitar, but overall it doesn’t deliver, especially because of the lyrics.

I don't know who advised them to write and produce only in Italian, but if I could, I would tell them one thing: "don't listen to them and continue the work you started on X-Factor, a bold and powerful punk that needs an appropriate language, namely English."

(Taking into account that even the first two songs in Italian had the same quality).

Take for example the Title Track, "La Band": the melody is pleasant, as is the guitar, but the lyrics are banal, and the meter doesn't fit with the arrangement below... the result is flat, nothing special.

The same reasoning applies to "Boh Amore."

The talent is there, I hope this flop can put them back on the road to success, and I sincerely hope so.

However, they must keep one characteristic: the fact that every song tells the story of a character, always appreciated and I will always appreciate it.

I can recommend everyone to give them a chance, especially by listening to "Valencia," "Amaro Mio," "Jack (Non sa)," and "Matador."

From the album, "Bobby Eroina" (the guitar really helps it), "Peggy" (just for the story it tells and the classic Italian rock atmosphere), and "Boh Amore" can be spared.

I hope someone can contradict me.