Kingcrow - Eidos - 2015
“... have I spent a lifetime hiding from the truth? ...”
intro
If you read my reviews for progVisions, you will know by now that I'm not into heavy metal. To be honest, often I get bored after a couple of tracks. But there is a kind of transition area between metal and progressive rock where you will find the real progressive metal titles. And no, if a band uses also keyboards it doesn't mean that you are listening to a progressive metal release. We can range the latest releases of the Italian band Kingcrow to that progressive metal genre.
line-up
Diego Marchesi - vocals; Diego Cafolla - guitars; Ivan Nastasi - guitars; Cristian Della Polla - synths and keyboards; Francesco D'Errico - bass; Thundra Cafolla - drums and percussion
Guests: Stefania Bentivoglio - saxophone on Slow Down; Fred Colombo - piano on The Deeper Divide
review
The new album “Eidos” is a conceptual album about choices, consequences, dealing with regret and disillusion. After “Phlegethon” (2010) talking about childhood and “In Cresendo” (2013) about the end of youth “Eidos” can be considered the third part of a trilogy about the path of life. Musically it sees the band exploring new territories and pushing the extremes of its complex soundscape with a darker atmosphere and a more progressive attitude. “Eidos” is a remarkable album.
You can find the following 10 tracks on “Eidos”; ”The Moth”, ”Adrift”, ”Slow Down”, ”Open Sky”, ”Fading Out (part IV)”, ”The Deeper Divide”, ”On The Barren Ground”, ”At The Same Pace”, ”Eidos” and ”If Only”. I will not review all those tracks separately because you can listen to this concept album as one piece of music. This album has that quality, it is homogeneous and there are no weak spots. All the music of this perfect balanced album is written by guitarist Diego Cafolla.
“Adrift” is one of my favorite tracks. A diverse track with great melodies, melodic guitar parts and vocal harmonies. The vocals and vocal harmonies on this album are amazing. Singer Diego Marchesi is a revelation to me. His way of singing reminds me of the vocals of the Swedish band Pain Of Salvation. In “Slow Down” his vocals and the music has some Dream Theatre influences. But I prefer the more melodic track “Open Sky”. Not only because of the vocals but also because of the melodic guitar parts and symphonic keyboards ... There is certainly a Pain Of Salvation connection on this album. Maybe this is the result of the support tour with Pain Of Salvation in the year 2013.
Another great track is “The Deeper Divide”. Another diverse track with great vocals and intense instrumental parts. The closing section of the the album with the songs “At The Same Pace”, “Eidos” and “If Only” is also very strong. After a heavy guitar opening “Eidos” develops into a diverse track with delicious vocal harmonies next to the more intense vocal parts that are sung with a lot of passion. In the later part the tension of the music slowly works towards a climax with heavy guitars and symphonic keyboards. “If Only” opens with acoustic guitars in combination with keyboard strings and delicate vocal parts. The end of this track is very beautiful.
conclusion
My favorite tracks “Adrift”, “Open Sky”, “The Deeper Divide” and “Eidos” are evenly distributed over the album. In this way the album is perfect in balance. “Eidos” is a wonderful album full of great progressive music with a heavy bite. If you like the music of bands like Pain Of Salvation and Fates Warning, this one is for you. The band has a great singer named Diego Marchesi ... I am impressed by this guy.