ATON's - Capolinea



1. Introduzione - Star (7:11) 2. La Fanciulla e l'Albero (6:03) 3. Oltre me (4:39) 4. All'ingresso (1:36) 5. Il Fratello (5:03) 6. Capolinea (6:20) 7. Come me (4:03) 8. Sonata (2:20) 9. Sempre solo (4:40)

Total Running Time: 42:22


By virtue of some atavistic quality that has remained in existence for years, the Italian people seem to have a special penchant for the lyrical in their lives, art, and music. Not only is the language itself a gorgeous exponent of human passion, warmth, and raw emotion, but also the music that Italian progressive rock musicians have been making for decades has a certain plebeian charm that is quite different from the more distanced and somewhat haughty work of their British counterparts. The art pretense, musical complexity, and compositional fire are all there, but the Italians somehow shed a different perspective of light upon them that, when working, is absolutely marvelous. And Capolinea, ATON's' farewell posthumous effort, shows exactly how this intrinsic essence works in its more accessible fringes.

Taking off furiously after a short baroque keyboard intro with "Star," the band quickly dives headlong into a display of heavy ideas in Seventies metal fashion coupled with the funky slap bass of Vito Frallonardo and the intense drumming of Riccardo Lombardo, a hearty intensity that absorbs the listener into fits of purely raw emotion, and a structure that only serves to accentuate the urgency of the track. The resulting accelerated heartbeat and risk of a stroke, however, are soon put off by the rest of the record, which adopts a more lyrical stance in which ballads and short baroque instrumentals soon become the norm and see their stable reign interrupted only a measly couple of times. Read: People with a heart condition are allowed to listen as long as they don't play "Star" a thousand times straight. On second thought, scratch that…the temptation will be too great.

About half of Capolinea actually consists of songs that show a traditional ballad formation, with warm and somewhat naïve vocals, a sweet romanticism or drama in which clean guitars create a melodious atmosphere, and a healthy pop glossing serving as the main course that these Italians offer to their listeners. Eventually one will have sudden outbursts of an almost early metallic nature or nice time signature changes that guarantee the progressive character of the music created by main figure Pietro Ratto, along with the gentle nature of his musings, but the end effect of the album is doubtlessly one of sweetness. It's not quite pop, but it certainly is as accessible as good pop and has emotional impact written all over it, so that those who find their tastes akin to what Capolinea has to offer will indeed enjoy this album. Talk about going out the right way.

-by Marcelo Silveyra

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