SPEAKING TO STONES – Speaking To Stones

Speaking To Stones is a strong release, maybe the best Progressive Rock album in 2006.

Tony Vinci, David Callari, and Steve Germano founded an unnamed band in 2004, and started writing songs sporadically. The opener “Still Life,” itself tells you how vast the musical arsenal of this young band is. Touches of genre greats King’s X, Dream Theater, Rush, Marillion, and so on make the heart of a classic Prog fan beat to the drums.

According to a band statement, they wanted “… to meld the intense musicality of Progressive Rock with a modern popular sensibility …” — Mission accomplished! None of the eight tracks lacks power, but all at the same time are very sensitive. Some of them even bear glimpse of R ‘n’ B music. Although the band members wrote most parts of the songs by themselves, the team play of sweetly-voiced lead singer Richard Fink IV and extremely talented lead guitarist Tony Vinci is simply outstanding. The Breaks, tempo changes, and worlds of melody alone make this one a no brainer.

Track number three, “Waiting For …” leaves nothing open. Clearly one of the most touching ballads ever to be heard. Go figure: this one was written only in a few months! This album never gets boring. Just as the last tunes of the sweet ballad sound off, a Dream Theater-laden riff thumps your eardrums just to change into a slow-paced ballad type part underlined by a whirling solo.

Regarding the fact that the band already demoed all but three songs (“Down,” “Shallow” and “Waiting for …”) in 2004, it is hard to believe it took so long to find a label. Finally Lion Music took Speaking to Stones under its wings. “It almost took two years of faith and diligent effort to finally record the rest of the material and re-record parts of those original tracks to create the completed CD,” the guys say … and all the work paid off!

Speaking To Stones Track Listing

1. Still Life
2. Rescue Me
3. Waiting for
4. Down
5. My Final Sin
6. Close To The Sky
7. Shallow
8. Nothing