Estra
Alterazioni

When I saw it, I couldn't believe it. Here on DeBaser, where there are thousands of DeReviews on hundreds of singers and bands, there are no words about Estra! one of the best Italian bands today, and the wonder is that no one (or few) knows them. But, to begin with: Giulio "Estremo" is on vocals, Abe Salvadori on guitar, followed by Eddy Bassan (on bass I believe) and Nicola Accio Ghedin on drums. A formation that for about ten years has been producing top-level music, a rock that doesn't envy much its cousins Afterhours or many even more established bands.

The name "Estra" shouldn't make you think this is a metal band, for example: Giulio Casale is one of the few in Italy who can compose poetry in music, melancholic, sometimes angry, never vulgar. And in this album, "Alterazioni," there are songs that absolutely deserve to be listened to if you are in love with good music: it starts with "Preghiera," where you immediately hear the sound that "Estra" often uses, a powerful, rhythmic guitar that perfectly blends with the somewhat languid, somewhat desperate voice of Giulio Casale, always searching for something that isn't there, or something that has been lost and the pain that the absence brings us ("I have, like every evening of mine, prayed to those who were there and are no longer with me..."). The album continues with "Miele," "Nessuno," "Metà di me," "Aria Minacciosa," and in these songs, Giulio Casale's more aggressive side (can I say that?!) emerges, still mixed with his poetic vein, but what strikes me is hearing songs like "Puoi distruggere" or "Hanabel," relatively calm songs, because they contain an underlying bitterness, for an ending that seems imminent: "The sun is there, and now I know, that even if I die, I die well, and you will write to me."

This album is imbued with a swing of emotions, of anger and sweetness, of euphoria ("In faccia al niente"). . it's like when under the influence of alcohol, you have days of extreme fragility, and days of extreme power, so much so that you could break everything: perhaps this is why the nickname of the singer, "Extremo," is to be interpreted. I've left my two favorite songs for the end, because as they say, "Dulcis in fundo." I'm talking about "Un Varco" and "Risveglio," two songs that absolutely deserve 5 stars. The first has calm tones and is accompanied only by Abe's guitar. The second is perhaps the most pessimistic song I have ever heard: the sensation it communicates is powerful, defeated, desperate. Comparable to "The Scream" by Munch, to certain poems by Leopardi. It starts with a whisper in English ("una volta ancora, la luce è tornata" I apologize for the translation) then it continues with a kind of delirious recitative, in which one condemns and curses life? Existence? Perhaps the awakening itself, seen as a useless succession of days, in which one struggles to do the same things, always: emblematic is the almost shouted phrase "non è ancora cominciata, e già si mangia e si beve!" it's the lack of purity, the absence of a peaceful harbor, the impossibility of understanding the pain. Giulio Casale wavers in a morning that slowly brightens, prey to tremors: "Once again, the light have changed". .