Search - Rovescio Della Medaglia :: La Bibbia

Very underrated debut from this Italian prog band

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 04/08/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Il Rovescio della Medaglia, aka RDM is obviously best known for their third album, Contaminazione. But they already released two albums prior to that, and 1971's La Bibbia is their debut. I find this quite underrated, and here's the reason why: it doesn't have that strong classical influence that Contaminazione has. In fact, it's much more in the hard rock direction, heavy on guitar with some very trippy effects from time to time caused by sound generators, feedback, and distortion. Plus the vocals here are very much in the hard rock style. In fact the band in this very early phase still didn't even have a keyboardist, so guitars obviously rule, as demonstrated with songs like "La Creazione", "L'Ammonimento", "Sodoma e Gomorra" and "Il Giudizio". Also you'll notice absolutely no Luis Enriquez Bacalov orchestra like you do Contaminazione (or it's English language counterpart Contamination). Since La Bibbia came out in 1971, it should come as no surprise as that was the year the Italian prog scene had just got started, meaning many bands at that time still hadn't abandoned their psychedelic, blues, folk, jazz, or hard rock roots, and of course, RDM being no exception. So the production is rather rough, and the sound quality isn't the best, plus you get no more than 30 minutes of music. But despite that, I think this album is still a wonderful, underrated progressive hard rock album, and if you don't compare this to Contaminazione, you probably would enjoy this album."