Accordo dei Contrari - Kinesis. 2007 Italy

Starting with a sound straight out of the early Mahavishnu Orchestra playbook, Accordo dei Contrari waste no time in establishing their heavy instrumental fusion sound. In fact, I was immediately reminded of DFA, another A-list progressive rock group from Italy. All the tracks feature counterpoint in an instrumental setting. They catch a groove, rock hard - change meters, and rock hard again. If I had a complaint, it's that the album as a whole has a certain sameness to it. While I adored the first few tracks, I found my mind wandering as the album continued. Perhaps had I started in the middle, I would feel stronger for the latter tracks. I need to do that actually. Point being, it's this monolithic nature that keeps the album from being a stone classic. A minor complaint, because no doubt this is a fantastic album overall. Recommended to all European instrumental rock fans. Or what we used to call "Euro Rock", still quite possibly my favorite sub-genre of the progressive rock spectrum.

Ownership: CD: 2007 AltRock

2008; 9/16/17 (new entry)