Nuova Era - Return to the Castle (2016)

A 75-minute symphonic progressive rock, sung in English for the first time in the history of the band, which ranges from baroque sections to other ones more dreamy and atmospheric.
Nuova era was one of my favourite bands from the 90s and their 1992 masterpiece "Io e il tempo" I still hold as one of my favourite albums of all time. About 20 years after their last proper album, "Il passo del soldato" from 1995, they release a new album! The titel is in english, as are all the songs. Let me get back to that. The music on the album is like the band never left and continued playing and recording their music, this album could easily have been a follow up a couple of years later after their last album. The sound is almost the same, lots of keyboards dominating the music with additional guitars.
The production has always been a weak spot for the band, here we experience the same thing, it sounds a bit thin production-wise and it doesn't sound as tight as one would like. But the real gem of this band has always been their ability to write great music and great songs so the thin production has never been a problem for me. The singing on previous albums has always been in italian, wich I prefer, and it has always been in perfect harmony to the music. Now they have decided to sing in english instead and it sounds… eh… not so good. Don't get me wrong here, the vocalist sings good, but unfortionately I don't think he has ever heard english before. I am sorry but the vocals drags this album down a lot. Thank god most of the music is instrumental. The music is full blown symphonic rock with all the natural twists and turns, different tempos and lots of great breaks and riffs. The bands ability to perform great compositions hasn't changed in twenty years, I do find the songs a bit more heavy and complex than before but that isn't a bad thing IMHO. If you got their earlier albums you'll know what you're going to get.