Artist: Not A Good SignAlbum: Not A Good Sign
Year: 2013
Label: Fading Records/AltrOck
Review: Diego Camargo
Rate:
Thoughts: Not A Good Sign is an ‘All-Team’ project of the Italian label AltrOck. Released by their umbrella label Fading Records Not A Good Sign (2013) is composed by musicians from other bands of the label. Paolo Botta (keyboards) comes from the bands Ske and Yugen, Francesco Zago (guitars) also comes from Yugen, Alessio Calandriello (vocals) and Gabriele Guidi Colombi (bass) from La Coscienza Di Zeno and Martino Malacrida (drums) from Antifone Libere and others.
‘Almost I’ is the track one on the debut self-titled album from this new project. A powerful instrumental with King Crimson colors.
‘Almost II’ gives continuation to the album with a more melodic and slower track. A great performance of the vocalist Alessio Calandriello (La Coscienza Di Zeno).
‘Not A Good Sign’ is the track that gives its name to the band and to the album and it is a monster one. Weird signature tempo, astonishing vocals and great dynamic. It includes a full change in the second half of the song, this time based on piano and acoustic guitars.
One thing to be mentioned about Not A Good Sign is their ‘kitchen’. It’s important for a band to have solid drums and basses, but not just that, it’s also important that they are clever in what they’re doing. And Not A Good Sign has it!
Martino Malacrida and Gabriele Guidi Colombi are two monster musicians.
‘Making Stills’ is the next track and for a moment it reminded me of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (1973). But soon after the intro we can see the 70’s Italian Prog influence. This instrumental track has everything! But it’s most a fast pace tempo song with absolute superb keyboards by Paolo ‘Ske’ Botta.
‘Witchcraft By A Picture’ is heavier and shows us a bit of Black Sabbath’s influence for a moment, the only exception being the vintage keyboards. But this is in fact just the intro, the rest of the song turns out to have female vocals by Sharron Fortnam and in my opinion it is the weakest track on Not A Good Sign (2013) because it escapes completely from the band’s proposition.
And while ‘Coming Back Home’ is yet another song with 70’s style and great dynamics; ‘Flow On’ has a cello (by Bianca Fervidi) and a very weird drum beat. I would say that this track is a bit more modern than the others.
In the end of Not A Good Sign (2013) we have two tracks: ‘The Defeaning Sound Of The Moon’ with its riffs and moods and the instrumental ‘Afraid To Ask’, that end up like an unusual lullaby with Francesco Zago’s heavy guitars, Maurizio Fasoli’s (as a guest) piano and once again Bianca’s cello.
Every time I receive a new album from AltrOck/Fading I crack a smile, because I know that it’s going to be a high quality product. And especially if they put together musicians of their other bands together to record. The high quality we have on the album was most certain, and in fact it is!
Not A Good Sign (2013) is a strong album that the test of time will show us how good is. Just hope that this project comes back to the studio anytime in the future to make more records!
Guaranteed quality!
The band was included in our Podcast #22 and you can listen the track 'Coming Back Home' HERE.