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For roughly 30 years, DGM have been dominating the Italian progressive steel scene, and with almost a dozen albums produced since their 1997 debut LP (Change Route), they’ve actually explored the subgenre in a variety of depth. With 2024’s Infinite – which follows 2023’s Life – the quintet determined to vary route another way by leaning into basic (Nineteen Seventies) progressive rock templates and storytelling. Regardless of being undeniably spinoff and repetitious general, the report a extremely commendable and entertaining reinvigoration that ought to please each established followers and anybody who felt that DGM‘s prior work was a bit too aggressive.
As guitarist/keyboardist Simone Mularoni notes, Infinite is the group’s “first actual idea album” and “the primary DGM album that features many extra dynamic, [reflective], and acoustic moments than prior to now.” (Particularly, it attracts inspiration from artists equivalent to Yes, Jethro Tull, PFM,and Kansas.) Plus, it evokes Robert Frost‘s well-known poem “The Road Not Taken” in that it “chronicles one man’s imaginative journey to grasp the alternatives that formed his life,” in the end asking: “How would possibly life be completely different if I had taken one other path?”
Clearly, DGM have the musical and narrative ambitions to make Infinite a captivating journey, and should you can look previous how acquainted all of it appears, you may little question discover that it principally lives as much as its potential.
The album’s conventional progressive/symphonic rock emphases are obvious from the bounce, with opener “Guarantees” starting as an acoustic prelude earlier than evolving right into a full-on prog rock instrumental tour-de-force. In a means, it seems like what would occur if Randy McStine (McStine & Minnemann, Porcupine Tree) sang – after which performed on – the opening piece from Spock’s Beard‘s Snow (“Made Alive/Overture“). Even so, it is a very spectacular and pleasurable introduction whose fluidity, melodies, taking part in, and various textures (particularly, woodwinds) instantly show how snug the band is of their new terrain.
Subsequent items “The Nice Unknown,” “Clean Pages,” and 14-minute epic nearer “…Of Infinite Echoes” are equally imitative but nonetheless fairly hanging. With their anthemic choruses, heartfelt hooks, and resourceful timbres (equivalent to affective pianowork, acoustic guitar strums, and heat horns), it is arduous to not get invested in them.
That stated, the center portion of the LP finds the group extra overtly embracing their heavier (progressive steel) DNA. As an illustration, “Last Name” and “Solitude” recall the country introspections and/or complexly hectic guitar, percussion, and keyboard theatrics of Echolyn, Shadow Gallery, and Dream Theater. “From Ashes” even harkens again to DGM‘s energy steel origins with its in-your-face hostility and operatic singing (courtesy, in fact, of vocal powerhouse Marco Basile).
If it weren’t apparent sufficient already, Infinite deserves reward for its intentions and execution, however it could’t assist however really feel like a pastiche of varied legendary progressive rock artists, too. In reality, it generally resembles particular passages from others’ works. (To not maintain bringing them up, however “The Nice Unknown” has rather a lot in frequent with Spock’s Beard‘s “At the End of the Day,” which – coincidentally or not – comes from an album that ends with a bit referred to as “The Great Nothing“).
Whether or not intentional or not, these parallels cannot be ignored, however additionally they do not imply that Infinite is totally unoriginal or unenjoyable. Consequently, it is nonetheless a worthwhile effort so long as you understand what to anticipate.
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