New Trolls
Searching For A Land

"Traveling, wish I knew where I was going

every place now looks the same

nothing new seems to come my way.

All my life I've been searching for something

but so far are lonely roads

and bad luck has been my friend".

Thus presents the album by the New Trolls: "Searching For A Land", a double album, the first in the history of Italian rock. "Searching For A Land" was created in 1972 by the famous Italian rock band: New Trolls, formed by Vittorio De Scalzi, Nico Di Palo, Frank Laugelli, Maurizio Salvi, and Gianni Belleno. In an attempt to sell in the Anglo-Saxon countries, they sing their songs in English. However, this choice was much criticized by the public and later disowned by the band itself, who the following year, on the cover of the album "Ut", included ironic phrases about the previous work. This album did not achieve commercial success for various reasons besides the language choice, as it was a double album and was quite expensive for the time. Another reason for its lack of success is the excessive inspiration from English bands like Deep Purple and Jethro Tull.

The first LP is recorded in the studio, and from the very first words of the album, I noticed the strong resemblance to Jethro Tull, even the voice of Vittorio De Scalzi is very similar to that of Ian Anderson. The second LP is hard rock and is also recorded in the studio but is in strong contact with the external noises of the audience to simulate a live performance.

The tracks on the album are eleven in total, lasting over 70 minutes, and the most famous ones are "Percival": a track with a strong Anglo-Saxon Folk influence of those years and featuring mythological lyrics. The piece is sung by Nico Di Palo, who performs high registers, almost to the point of making the words hard to understand, accompanied by the acoustic guitars of Nico Di Palo and Vittorio De Scalzi; "In Saint Peter's Day": composed by Vittorio De Scalzi and Maurizio Salvi, which tells about Saint Peter's betrayal of Jesus and his repentance, and "A Land To Live, A Land To Die": a jazz-psychedelic track sung by Nico Di Palo. The piece includes a solo after two verses by the guitarist and a very long one on the Hammond organ by Maurizio Salvi, reminiscent of Keith Emerson's solo in the song "Tarkus". Furthermore, a significant contribution is made by Vittorio De Scalzi, who handles the sound effects created with the A.R.P. synthesizer. The album also features the flute, played by Vittorio De Scalzi in two tracks of the second LP.

At this point, I give the album a rating of 4/5 because, aside from a few songs, the first LP seemed very monotonous and somewhat backward in technical and melodic terms compared to Italian bands of that time ("Area", "Banco del Mutuo Soccorso"...) or previous works like "Concerto Grosso" or "Senza Orario Senza Bandiera"; while the second LP, in addition to showcasing more of the musicians' skills, presents a very avant-garde sound that has nothing to envy of English hard rock bands.