Magia Nera is an Italian act from La Spezia. They were already active in the 1970s, albeit only as a cover band. Vlad is their third album after releasing L'Ultima Danza Di Ophelia (2017) and Montecristo (2020). Strangely enough it is my first encounter with this band. The album was released in 2023, but only reached our office two years later! The album has been released with a book in Italian, just like the lyrics, titled L'innocenza Di Dracula (Apologia Di Un Vampiro), written by Bruno Cencetti, mastermind of the band. The book and therefore also the music on the album deals with the figure of Vlad the Impaler, who everyone knows as the vampire Dracula. However this time around it tells the story of Dracula from his own perspective, explaining how he became a famous vampire. It is Cencetti himself that narrates in a very fluent way the vampire genesis of the most famous Count of horror, painting a tragic birth with a hint of eros, adding a non-trivial interior reflection. The music that comes along with this exceptional concept is provided by Alfredo Peghini (bass, 12-String acoustic guitar), Alvaro Lazzini (drums) and the earlier mentioned Bruno Cencetti (electric guitar, classical guitar, vocals, music, lyrics). They got some help of Luca Tommasi who did some keyboard parts and Daniele Tedeschi who did play the piano. The music which comes along with this story is rather good and features some strong electric and acoustic guitar parts throughout the entire album. Just listen to the opening piece La Protogenesi (Recitativo), Frassino Nel Cuore or Dolce Sentire. But also the keyboard parts are well done. Listen to the excellent synthesizer solos on Ali Nel Buio, Frassino Nel Cuore and Freddo Sacello and you know what I mean. Also the organ solos on Dolce Sentire and Amore Di Una Notte sounds rather amazing. As for the musical references it is easy to mention the well known Italian progressive rock bands such as Banco and Premiata Forneria Marconi. But also Pink Floyd comes to the surface occasionally thanks to the organ parts. There are also some classical opera references as you can hear at the start of Freddo Sacello with the used samples of Carl Orff's O Fortuna. The only problem with this great sounding album is the total length. With only a half hour of music it is of course way too short. However this doesn't prevent me to give this multimedia concept album on Dracula a good score. Therefore I can only recommend this fine piece of art, on which the overall sound is definitively vintage and I'm sure that fans of seventies Italian prog will appreciate this work very much. **** Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
