MOONLIGHT COMEDY – The Life Inside

This is the first offering from these Italian Progressive Rockers from Milano. The album starts interestingly enough with what sounds like someone running to their car in an empty parking lot, and then the keyboards take over, and suddenly you find yourself in a middle of a sonic storm that doesn’t let up for the rest of the album.

The vocals of Emiliano Germani do take a while to get used to … his voice is filled with passion but seems to have an eerie commanding quality. With a voice like this, he would probably be more at home singing traditional music. Germani’s voice will most likely be the deciding point to most on whether they like this band or not.

There’s so much going on here that it’s difficult to follow all of it. The overall sound could have used a few more “softer” tones. As it stands now, the “commanding” sound is a tad too strong and the album comes through as a bit much to take in during one listen. Each song ends up being such a strong sound attack that the few-and-far-between little breathers within the songs only leave you hoping for more of the same!

This album can be compared to surviving a heavy storm at sea. You’re lucky if you walk away with only bruises, and the only thing left for you to do is to wait it out and hold on tight! This CD is definitely aimed for those with a more advanced knowledge of Progressive Metal.

Each song sounds like the guitarist, drummer, and the keyboardist are competing with each other over who can finish the song fastest. There’s no doubt that the band can master their instruments and play them faster than the speed of light travels, but it gets hard on the listener to repeatedly get hit by what often feels like a competition of who can play the fastest. When you finally get a little bit longer of a breather in “Wisdom of the Wise,” your head is already spinning so much by this time that after you realize they’ve finally slowed down … the pace speeds up again! This band is like Dream Theater on speed!

The album ends with a calming outro, via the sounds of children playing in a playground, and then the keyboards come in along with the vocals, which end up repeating the album title Life inside over and over again.

All the songs are filled with many nuances, time, and vocal changes, but to the untrained ear, what hits you the most is the speed and brutality of sound. This indeed is a brutal attack of the senses with high-pitched vocals recorded over screaming, speeding guitars running alongside the keyboards, while the drummer viciously attacks the drum kit. These are not merely songs … these are definitely compositions heavy on speed and appraising soundscape. The mere speed of this album leaves the listener out of breath. Hmmm … you gotta wonder what an aerobics class could make of this?