Short Reviews [Magnolia - 2017 - "Con Fuoco"]

Italian progressive act Magnolia can trace their roots all the way back to 1994, but split up in 2000 only to reform in 2010. Their debut full-length album, `La Zona d'Ombra' was released in 2012, with ‘Con Fuoco’ following in 2017. Although Chiara Gironi sings in Italian, the booklet contains lyrics both in Italian and English, and the digipak itself is packed full of photographs, which makes it a really nice package. Apart from the lyrics they certainly don’t sound like an Italian band, but have been taking their inspiration more from the likes of Porcupine Tree, theGathering, Anathema and modern Marillion, as opposed to the more “traditional” bombastic classical symphonic Italian style. There are quite large elements of neo prog in their music, so they are definitely quoite removed from many other Italian progressive bands. There are times when they do go quite over the top, and Gironi can be quite strident when she wishes to be, but it is when the band are more reflective and pick at the guitars that they have the most power, definitely a “less is more” approach. The whole album, both musically and presentation wise, is incredibly professional and while never really reaching the realms of being indispensable it is still an enjoyable release.