Review by E.S.C.
From Ciao 2001 (Jan89)
Note: This article was originally in Italian.
It has been translated by Ulisse. If you want to read the original version,
click here.
If I had to choose a word to begin the review of AATT's latest effort with, it would be "captivating", and the reason to this would be easy to understand from the very first note of the opening song, Prince Rupert. The album is one of the most solid and logical works of the British band which has chosen to remain in the shadows; creating dark and lyrical anti-commercial masterpieces. A wonderful choice that has guaranteed the band creative survial and a constant artistic maturity that finds its inspiration in a deep interatction between music and literature, notes and poetry. It's an ideal that reveals a sentimental intensity that can be found in the very song titles, like Macbeth's Head, Belief in the Rose and The Horse Fair. There's also a reference to Cat Stevens, Lady d'Arbanville, completely revised here, which surely doesn't go unnoticed. AATT's world of sounds is one of a kind; if in the beginning it was trying to connect itself with gothic tendencies, now it has developed a personal ideal with amazing expressive possibilities. To prove that, there are songs of infinite romance, like Misfortunes and Belief in the Rose and episodes that fall somewhere between a recital piece and a solid rock/pop song, like The Street Organ and Macbeth's Head, which show how to transcend the false limits of art and how to create new levels of fantasy and emotions. [E.S.C]