PENTESILEA ROAD: “Pentesilea Road” (26 February 2021, self-release)

Perhaps I’m a bit conservative with my ideas, but if you ask me bands writing more radio friendly material often results into trouble. Not even Pentesilea Road could resist attempting this, but perhaps I have doubt on this. The debut album of Itailan Pentesilea Road seems to have such tunes but they even sound far superior to anything like this.

Pentesilea Road is a post-progressive rock band, originally formed as a one-man solo project of the Italian guitarist Vito F. Mainolfi in 2014. Until 2019, the band published several demos, mostly instrumental, over SoundCloud and BandCamp. In July 2020 Vito F. Mainolfi home-recorded a full-length demo of 11 tracks and started recruiting several musicians in order to record the first self-titled album. By the end of October 2020, the band line up was completed, including guest stars Ray Alder (Fates Warning, Engine, Redemption) and Mark Zonder (Ex- Fates Warning, Warlord). Recording of the first album was completed by the end of 2020 and the first single, “Shades of the Night”, was released on January the 29th, 2021. The first full-length album “Pentesilea Road” was released on February, the 26th 2021. The band's name is a reference to Pentesilea, the diluted city described in Italo Calvino’s book “Invisible Cities”.

The musical style is a contamination of a few genres, including clear influences from the Progressive, Post-Rock and Metal areas. Whether Pentesilea Road is trying to follow Fates Warning’s footsteps at the time we may never know for sure, but the future will tell. The band seems to adore Fates and the first single plus the two important guests of this album seem to scream a big “Yes“ about this. You can also listen to the predictable soft acoustic verse / distorted chorus construction of their songs.

It’s fortunately not worthless. “Pentesilea Road” sounds interesting and gets somewhat catchy (‘’Shades of the night”, “Noble Art”, do see Ray Alder doing a suitable job with interesting results at least) for the most part, it also features an instrumental opening anthem “Memory Corners” feat. Mark Zonders and “Stains” is quite an excellent track – literally! ). Surely it’s not exactly a heavy or emotionally overwhelming album in any way, but it works enough for me. You will find great guitar work and catchy songs that won’t allow you getting bored.

Production-wise, “Pentesilea Road" feels feather light and while it’s not exactly ideal, it’s not bothering me too much either. The album was recorded as a long-distance collaboration of several musicians, each one recording in the Country of residence, due to COVID-19 pandemic (Guitars/Bass recorded in the Netherlands, Vocals in Italy and Spain, Keys in Italy, Drums in Italy and USA). So yeah, a pretty decent entry overall. Perfectly acceptable band with a big sing-along potential, something not easy to be found nowadays!

1. Memory Corners 

2. Stranded

3. Genius Loci

4. Spectral Regrowth

5. Stains

6. Give Them Space

7. Shades Of The Night

8. The Psychopathology Of Everyday Things

9. Noble Art (feat. Ray Alder)

10. Pentesilea Road

11. A Tale Of Dissidence

12. Shades Of The Night (feat. Ray Alder)

https://www.facebook.com/pentesilearoad

https://pentesilearoad.bandcamp.com/album/pentesilea-road-2

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKeoz8TsveQC6MOzQPysoKA

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2dfuaABjoufPDGwPHAp090?si=WrdQZTXzSVCAKXihhtdeGQ

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