4.5 out of 5 Stars!

From Italy, La Bocca della Verità has released only a single album in 2016, a Sci-Fi themed concept album, and what a corker it is.

This impressive collection of Symphonic and Neo-Prog seems to take all the best elements from groups such as Spock’s Beard, Nemo, PFM, Marillion, Yes, Transatlantic, Unitopia, Galahad, The Flower Kings—hell, you name it—and blend everything together into a Prog-Rock heaven.

Even though the band features a dynamic rhythm section (including a Rickenbacker bass—my favorite) and some wonderfully adept guitar gymnastics, it is undoubtedly the synths, organs, pianos, and Mellotrons that reign supreme, and with the band including two keyboardists in its lineup, that comes as no surprise.

Although the lead vocals, sung in Italian, are generally pleasant enough, it’s the band’s creative instrumentation, the ever-changing tempos, atmospheres, and highly varied keyboard orchestrations that truly steal the show, especially on tracks such as the nearly eighteen minute “La Suite Dei Tre Planeti” and the lesser epics “La Rivolta, II Massacro Dei Terrstri,” “Reprise (Speranze Distorte),” “La Deportazione Degli Avenothiani,” and the title tune, with each song seemingly crammed with tons of Prog excitement and magical moments.

Avenoth might not be quite the perfect 5-Star masterpiece, but it comes damned close, making me yearn for much more material from this talented band…and soon!

Get The Album Now!