Una Stagione All’inferno — Il Mostro Di Firenze
The band is centered around guitarist/ vocalist/ songwriter Fabio Nicolazzo and keyboard player/ songwriter/ singer Laura Menighetti. With the rest of the line up filled in by Roberto Tiranti- backing vocals, Pier Gonella- electric Guitars, Marco Biggi- Drums, Paolo Firpo- Soprano Sax, Akai Ewi 4000s, Kim Schiffo- Cello. Daniele Guerci- Viola, and Laura Sillitt- Violin. All but one track here is sang in Italian, but personally, I think this fits the tone/ feel of the album well.
In typical prog form, The Monster Of Florence is a concept album, and the concept is following the trail of a serial killer- all giving the whole thing the feeling of a Giallo turned into music- and adding to this we get a good selection of moody sound effects/ field recordings. I personally really felt the album nodded towards/ brought to mind the later day Giallo/ thrillers that Dario Argento made- like Sleepless & The Card Player.
The album takes in ten tracks, and fifty-five minutes of music. It open ‘s with “Novilunio”- this seven & half minute track begins with a mixture of faint dark ambience, zipping of bags sounds, and footsteps- all nicely setting the mood. At the minute mark we move into a wondering ‘n’ bleakly moody Goth bass line, fairly soon this is joined by looped owl call sample, and a smooth & sleekly dark sax solo. From here the track nicely builds with a blend of synth/ clear piano notations- with later male Italian rock vocals added in here & there, with some dramatic guitar soloing. The track brought to my mind a more Goth focused blend of Ulver around Perdition City, later day Gong, and more traditional atmospheric rock…an interesting blend indeed.
As we move through the album we come to track
"L'Enigma Dei Dannati"- which blends together tightly strummed pop rock electric acoustic work, wondering 70’s synth-scaping, and sing/ song joint male vocals- with later some neat string work coming into the fold too. All creating a darkly campy-yet- effectively dramatic track. And still later is the only English language track the tacky titled “Serial Killer Rock”- which sounds like a more guitar chugging take on an 80’s/90’s Goblin lead theme tune, with the great addition of sample dialogue, and dramatic sounds- all again giving a very film-like feel to proceedings.
So if you have a penchant for darker focused prog/ atmospheric rock, with the odd Goth & Jazz tinged moments, and you also enjoy Giallo/euro serial killer movies- I reckon Il Mostro Di Firenze will nicely fit your tastes.