Have you ever heard of the word sinestesia? Well, until now I never had. Sinestesia appears to be a rather new band from Italy that released their second album The Day After Flower at the end of 2009. According to their MySpace-site it means ‘a simultaneous perception of two senses’. When two senses interact new sensations are created, for instance a colour becomes warm or a sound metallic. This concept is also representing their music: ‘a crossover between a melodic composition and a powerful execution’ as the band describes their music. This was the reason why they choose this term for a band name. However, there’s a more detailed explanation of the band: “A singular style with two marked musical ‘senses’: hard rock and progressive, where the expressive multiplicity of every single artist allows the group to range over a wide spectrum of emotions, from metal to psychedelic, conjugating the richness of the seventies progressive with the present-day experimental sounds”. Well… to be honest, I couldn’t have said that any better myself... Let me give you some background information of Sinestesia. Before they released this beautiful prog metal album with a collection of great songs, they released the demo Aquarium in 2003. PFM’s drummer Franz Di Cioccio had also noticed how talented this band was and he made it possible for them to record their debut album. In 2007 he released their first official eponymous debut album on his own Immaginifica-label. I’m not familiar with this album, but according to their site it contains eight well-structured songs showing their skills of arranging music. The most striking feature on The Day After Flower is singer Rocky De Vito. He’s a magnificent and gifted lead singer with great personality who recites his lyrics without any accent at all. You can easily compare him to Andy Kuntz (Vanden Plas). Because of that it’s obvious that Vanden Plas is one of Sinestesia’s references. Another reference is Dream Theater, Sinestesia have two great musicians who can perform magnificent solos: keyboard player Alberto Bravin and guitarist Roberto De Micheli who both appear to be very talented. That also applies to the rhythm section with six-string bass player Alessandro Sala and drummer Paolo Marchesich. The instrumental piece C.W.A.Prelude and the next track Cold War Apocalypse showcase the talents of all the band members. Fortunately these musicians not only want to show how fast they can play, but they can also play melodic and ballad-like songs as we can hear in The Birth, The Death, Trance By The River and Violet. The opera singing on Burning Times (Never Forget) is very special; it certainly adds a new dimension to the music. This release probably deals with a specific concept or story. Sadly, I couldn’t find out what it’s all about. It could possibly be a dark story about the destruction of our planet while (a) ‘Flower’ tries to survive. The album title The Day After Flower could have been The Day After Tomorrow as well, because these titles are strongly related, but that’s pure speculation. I have to give the musicians of Sinestesia a big compliment for the way they created a perfect soundtrack for their story. Both the music and the compositions on this album can compete with every prog metal album released by big names like Dream Theater and Vanden Plas. So bravo to Sinestesia! *** Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
