DROPSHARD: Silk (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

With this second album, the Italians of shard are in the lineage of the modern and neat progressive rock bands such as Riverside or Haken. Even if the music of these bands is not totally comparable, the artistic approach is similar. It's all about giving free rein to one's creativity in a subtle and well-constructed progressive spirit while detaching oneself from the most obvious influences, whether they are neo-prog or progressive metal. Endowed with an asserted personality and a strong creativity, "Silk" sails on delicately atmospheric waters before offering an expressive and sometimes powerful progressive rock.

Alex Stucchi's bass is the foundation of the compositions with all its roundness and precision while Enrico Scanu's emotional vocals are the summit. Between the two, the keyboards, the guitars and sometimes the brass or the flute twirl to take us into a rock that seems to have no limits. Each track is a slowly built construction full of twists and turns and charm. Among the outstanding tracks, the opener 'Insight' creates an atmosphere of expectation and excitement that is both healthy and painful. Deliciously rising vocals, then the prog-sounding guitar and keyboard imbroglio mix with incisive and expressive drums and a bewitching bass. The languorous 'Eyes' delivers another facet of the Milanese quintet that presents its neo progressive tendency in what it has of better. We can also note 'Cell 342' which starts as a piano/voice ballad to end up in a virulent, twirling and sometimes tribal race.

Some atmospheric breaths ('Seat', 'Less Is More') delicately chiseled ('Perpetual Dream' and 'Get Out And Run', 'Maya') allow to catch one's breath between the master pieces that are 'The Endless Road' and 'Memento'. The first one exposes the many faces of shard: eminently melodic and subtly worked passages rub shoulders with syncopated rhythms and vocal and guitaristic flights of fancy. The other strong moment is 'Memento' which sometimes leans towards Anathema, but which constitutes above all a narrative and musical development of first order. The final track 'Libera Me' plunges us into a religious atmosphere that is conducive to meditation and contemplation.

Taken one by one, each track is excellent but they also manage to build a coherent and varied whole. As you listen to it, the subtleties and the character of this work are revealed more and more. The album has no notable flaws and allows shard to reach the best level of modern and elegant progressive rock. A divine surprise not to be missed. - Official website

DROPSHARD

SILK

AUTOPRODUCTION

PROGRESSIVE ROCK