Lucid Dream -
Visions From Cosmos 11


(CD 2011, 46:07, Private Release)

The tracks:
  1- Holy Rage
  2- Cosmos 11
  3- Fallin'
  4- In The Moment
  5- Night Feel
  6- Get Up
  7- Underground
  8- Sun And Sun
  9- Through The Years

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The Italian band Lucid Dream were established in 2009, when guitarist Simone Terigi had found three band mates to form a band with. The first one was bass player Gianluca Eroico, who had played with Terigi in a Joe Satriani tribute band. Next was the very talented drummer Paolo Raffo and Alessio Calandriello, a fellow-teacher at the Roland Music School was willing to do the vocals. Their mutual goal is to create music that blends eighties rock with progressive hard rock and modern guitar sounds. Let's see if Lucid Dream succeeded in reaching their goals.

When our main editor gave me Visions From Cosmos 11 to review he told me that since I was a Rush-fan, I would certainly like this one. Well, for me some aspects stand out after listening to this album like for instance the vocals. Indeed, the vocals are high-pitched and distinctive, sometimes referring somewhat to the early years of Geddy Lee (Rush). For example, the higher parts in Holy Rage, In The Moment and Through The Years have some similarity, but to me Calandriello's vocals have much more in common with Burke Shelley, the lead singer of Budgie. So, referring to these two vocalists, it's obvious that the vocals on this album are rather special. As I said in previous reviews: you either like it or you don't. However, Calandriello doesn't belong to the same league as Lee and Shelley yet.

The second thing I noticed is the pleasant sounding guitar of Simone Terigi that really stands out in songs like Fallin', Night Feel and Sun And Sun. He must be heavily influenced by Joe Satriani which can also be heard in his compositions, but he gives the music a personal twist and a style of his own. By the way the three songs I referred to are the instrumentals on this album and the ones I like the most. Another aspect of Visions From Cosmos 11 is the lack of keyboards. In combination with the type of songs, it's hard to mark this record as a progressive rock album.

Listening to the album it sounds to me like Budgie with Joe Satriani being their guitarist. The compositions are deeply rooted in the eighties and the vocals certainly give the album a classic rock touch. In Through The Years, you even get the Metallica-version of a Budgie-song, regarding the powerful guitars. The band deserves some credits for this effort, but that statement doesn't influence my opinion. It would be interesting to listen to a guitar album played by these three instrumentalists.

*** Pedro Bekkers (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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