Italy has a long and distinguished history in progressive rock, to which one can now add Vortico, a new band mixing a bit of metal with a keyboards and synthesiser onslaught. Vortico have actually been around since 2002, born from a partnership between melodic "doom-death" metal-heads Blood Stained Host and progressive rock front-man Rocco di Simone, but it was only in 2007 that they managed to get a distribution deal with Black Widow Records for their eponymous CD recorded in 2006.
Given their genesis it's perhaps not surprising that Vortico is an energetic, melody-rich, heavy amalgam of gritty and raw guitar playing and washes of keyboard sounds. The keyboards, ranging from a Hammond organ to, I suspect, a range of synthesizers, create a "wall of sound" throughout the album for the rest of the band to add their musical textures to. Most prominent are Eric Giancaterino's and Paolo Chella's guitar-playing, extremely gutsy and enjoyable throughout.
The tempo is generally fast, the exceptions being a lull for the romantically melodic "Fragile" and the slightly faster "Desiderio Mortale". The musical texture has an early to mid-70s feel given the combination of the heaviness of the keyboards and guitar and also perhaps because Vortico was in large part recorded in live sessions on analogue equipment, resulting in a very tactile musical texture as opposed to the synthetic sound that one can get on an over-produced album.
Having said that, Rocco's vocal is a bit low down in the mix, whether intentionally or not I'm not clear. It's not that it's a poor vocal, his singing is both melodic and strong but the way that it has been treated during the production means that it is the keyboards and guitar that have center-stage. Perhaps an exception is "Giorni nei Giorni" which allows Rocco a lull in the aural onslaught during his verses. The album is sung totally in Italian. Whilst you cannot blame the guys for wanting to sing in their own language, there is a clear loss to listeners whose first language is not Italian. Yes, you can pick up the musicality of the voice of course, but there is nevertheless something that is lost. One of the advantages of singing in English is that it has become a virtual universal language, certainly in the western world where the market for this sort of music is greatest.
Nevertheless, that reservation aside, Vortico remains a thoroughly enjoyable album.
Track Listing
1) Morti d'Oriente (5:37)
2) Giorni nei Giorni (4:44)
3) Psico Sconnessi (4:37)
4) Fragile (6:27)
5) Desiderio Mortale (6:18)
6) Muri (5:22)
7) Vortico (5:12)
8) Vita Dura (5:21)
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