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Melting Clock — Altrove
(Black Widow BWR 269, 2024, CD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2025-06-03

Altrove Cover art

The Italian neo-progressive band Melting Clock originated in the Physics Department of the University of Genoa in 2001. The founders’ shared interests in progressive bands like Porcupine Tree, Riverside, Opeth, Ayreon, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and PFM led them to initially cover songs from these bands and since then they have developed their own sound. Over the past 24 years, Melting Clock has undergone many personnel changes, with their new album Altrove featuring the four founding members Sandro Amadei (keyboards and vocals), Stefano Amadei (guitars), Alessandro Bosca (bass guitar), and Francesco Fiorito (drums), with Simone Caffè (guitars) and Emanuela Vedana (vocals) recently completing the lineup. The music on Altrove is a set of eight evocative and powerful tracks that at times hint at Porcupine Tree. They provide some background explanation for each track, but the words and music don’t connect for me. For example, “Endurance” is a song about Shackleton’s failed expedition to reach the South Pole and the extreme conditions endured by the crew on their unprecedented journey back to South Georgia after months of hardship and unimaginable dangers. But the music and Italian lyrics convey an entirely different mental image. Overall, the music is well played, the compositions are finely crafted, and Emanuela’s vocals are superb. But I just don’t connect with the music itself. Perhaps if I understood the Italian lyrics I might have a different experience. Sad to say, Altrove just leaves me flat.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Melting Clock

 

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