Fungus - The Face of Evil

Since their formation launched eleven years ago in their hometown in Genoa, in which it’s the sixth largest city in Italy, Fungus has released three albums from 2004 to 2010. And they have this influential sound of Psychedelic and Heavy Progressive Music they have in their background that inspired the Fungus’ roots to bring the genre alive. Their new album, The Face of Evil, which is released under the Bloodrock Records label (which is a distribution under Black Widow Records), is a fine gem they have released this year and it’s a knockout.

The band considers; Alejandro J. Blissett on Guitar, Carlo Barreca on Bass, Claudio Ferreri on Keyboards, Dorian Deminstrel on Lead Vocals, and Cajo on Drums.  The opening title track begins with this ambient / atmospheric keyboard, fretless bass line and layered guitar rhythm to set the curtains to go up as it heads into the outer limits of the solar system for the first few minutes before the energy starts to kick into a hard space rock adventure with a lot of powerful vocals, heavy organ and piano work as it rises up into unexpected moments.

Gentle Season has this wonderful touch of the Acid Folk sound resembling Rush’s Hemispheres-era in the style of The Trees and not to mention an earlier sound of Pink Floyd thanks to Blissett’s sliding guitar sound as he pays homage to David Gilmour as the swarming keyboards that Ferrer comes in with a mourning style on the chords as The Great Deceit goes into the Symphonic Emotional Rock treatment. Lukewarm guitar melodies along with the uplifting structures, it carries a touch of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s vibe into the composition as Blissett’s goes up a notch while Dorian screams his heart out and you can tell he can go into soft and hard roads with his vocals to give it that mighty touch.

The Key of the Garden is another folky-psych touch that has this wonderful combination between Love’s Forever Changes and the Rolling Stones Child of the Moon as Rain goes back into the elevating momentum from the previous tracks before Ferreri does this stop-and-go workout on the organ as Cajo helps him out by doing some exhilarating drum work as more of the guitar lines help the group out to make sure the band is in a perfect and excellent mood.

Share Your Suicide Part III has a spooky and haunting atmospheric delay between Carlo’s bass, Guitar, and the sound of the Theremin and Keyboards sets the tension on your personal demons and how far can you go to stop them before taking your life while Angel With No Pain & Better Than Jesus carries the touches of Bigelf with a lot of Synth, Organ and Guitar driven forces. Meanwhile, Requiem, in which it has a walking Guitar/Bass line with a spacey feel, carries the spirit of Eloy and a Saucerful of Secrets-era of Pink Floyd.

It has a dooming beat and then goes into the frenzy structures for a quick second and all of a sudden its headed straight into the cosmos a rumbling force before relaxing and back into light speed that is surprising and calmed for the last few minutes. Then, it becomes a swirling beat between Psychedelic, Surf, and Garage Music through the instruments adding a sudden piano concerto, militant drum patterns, and the haywire effects starting to kick in along with a jazzy flute solo to combine the watery drops inside the cavernous cave on The Sun.

The closing, Bkk, has a nice Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra-sque short second finale that closes the album off into heading home with the Curtains dropped. This is a very interesting band and The Face of Evil, is an exceptionally good album. I might plan to check out their other material sometime in the future, but I guess they really got something up their sleeves to carry the genre into different voyages on where they will take their music next. So far, this will get the rocket ships ready for lift-off!