Presence
Masters And Following

THE REVIEW

The Presence of the talented Sophya Baccini return in great style, following the excellent Big Red Dragon released under the name Sophya's Baccini Aradia. Presence have a long artistic career behind them, having formed in the late '80s. They immediately stood out for a symphonic progressive with dark and gothic hues, with a significant heavy component, a fact that perhaps penalized them a bit, unjustly I would say, with those who love classic prog and made them more appealing to lovers of harder sounds. In reality, the trio has always been able to create works that are appreciated, such as The Sleeper Awakes from 1994 and Black Opera from 1996: in this last album the operatic component was evident with the reinterpretation of arias by Giuseppe Verdi; it was a tribute to the cultural roots of our tradition. Sophya Baccini herself has declared that, in her opinion, prog will be considered in the future as we regard opera today. Over time, Presence's sound has increasingly lost the somewhat conventional dark connotations, moving towards a symphonic heavy prog sound – as in Evil Rose from 2008 – which today is somewhat their trademark. Even in the new double CD Masters And Following, just released by Black Widow, the settings increasingly lean towards prog-metal sounds that could appeal to fans of Dream Theater. Sophya Baccini's voice is, as usual, very beautiful and distinctive, accompanied by Sergio Casamassima's guitar, which is solid, powerful, and very hard, and by Enrico Iglio's keyboards. There is also a heavy metal style cover of the classic “The House On The Hill” by the great Audience. The second live CD presents classic Presence tracks, although the audio quality is honestly not very good. To those who already appreciate Presence, I can only recommend getting this new work, which I especially recommend to prog-metal lovers.