Short Reviews [Silver Nightmares - 2020 - "The Wandering Angel"]

Silver Nightmares are a new Italian progressive rock band, formed in Palermo in 2018 by bassist Gabriele Esposito, drummer Alessio Maddaloni and keyboard player Gabriele Taormina. They then went through various changes before finalising their line-up with guitarist Mimmo Garofal. One would imagine from this that they would be an instrumental act, but to record their debut 5 track release they brought in singers Simone Bonomo and Michele Vitrano and expanded the musical possibilities by also adding Giulio Maddaloni (flute), Tody Nuzzo (guitars) and Davide Severino (trumpet). The result is something which is a mixture of melodic hard rock and progressive rock, with some quite dated keyboards that also give it more of an RPI feel, yet with all vocals in English. The flute is an important facet of their overall sound, but I do get the impression the band are still trying to settle down on what they want to musically achieve. They name their musical influences as Asia, Genesis, Savatage, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Styx, Kansas, Toto, Iron Maiden, Jethro Tull, Foreigner, Dream Theater, Opeth, Ghost, Marillion, Anathema, Katatonia, Judas Priest and Ten which is an incredibly diverse list and while I don’t hear the heavier bands in much of their music, the guitar solos definietly do come from that style. It will be interesting to see where they go from here, as vocals and flute are incredibly important aspects of their sound on this release yet none of those involved are actually members of the band. Here we have a band which are still on the beginning of their musical journey and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.