Starting with 'Whales' and 'Memorie Del Sottosuolo,' the album or is it a EP gets off to lets say a less than spectacular start. Both tracks are solid ('Whales' is basically just a intro) but par for the course for anyone experienced in the ways of occult rock and 70's proto-metal sounds. However enter track three and the band hit their stride and the release is very good from this moment onwards with 'Raptus' and 'Guardiano Della Soglia' sticking out as two of the albums major high-points. I must point out that this is psychedelic and certainly on the trippy side of the heavy music spectrum. There are waves of organ crashing onto the shores of old-school Pentagram-ish sounding riffing that is laced with effects to give it that extra-psych rock flavor.
This release is not as heavy as one may expect given the people involved in the project but it is a curious piece of work. The atmosphere is one of horror and suspense with small amounts of weirdness entered into it but that is in-line with the great traditions of the Italian prog-rock scene. This is indeed proggy in the Italian 70's rock tradition and like all good prog, songs never stay the same for long. Changes in tempos, moods and instrumentation occur during most of the albums playing time and quite often, these changes in pace and direction come very unexpectedly. There is really only one problem with this worth mentioning and that is it feels incomplete. The total playing time is only 31 minutes but it also seems incomplete in other ways too. About half of the tunes seem like there is another verse waiting in the wings but the tracks always die out before getting there and overall the band seem a little unsure of what kind of band they are trying to be. This is doom, prog, occult-rock, traditional metal, psychedelic and horror-laced but it also has a strong euro-goth rock sound in places. That makes for a constantly engaging release but it also seems a bit confused and disjointed.
At its best, this is another great Italian occult/doom/70's hard prog release but it seems 10-20 minutes and a few ideas short of being an essential album. However trying to find something to hate about this is impossible for yours truly. This album won't be stealing the limelight from albums like Doomraiser's 'Erasing the Remembrance' anytime soon but as a debut release from the band, it is still damn good and worthy of your attention....7.5/10