This album is a legendary one in the annals of Italian progressive music. Released in 1973, it combines heavy rock and classical music in a progressive style with mellotrons galore, bringing to mind a mixture of Deep Purple and ELP, but with a Pink Floyd influenced feel.
I want to explain carefully why I am ready to put Zarathustra in the same pantheon as In The Court of the Crimson King, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Foxtrot, Close to the Edge, Thick as a Brick, and In A Glass House, among others.
Although it is not a seminal album like those noted above - and although it has some minor flaws (for example, the production is dated) - it nevertheless has a few things in its favor that far outweigh any minor quibbles, and definitely point to a legitimate masterpiece. it is portant to consider that Zarathustra was MR s debut album. It took Gentle Giant three albums to get to their first conceptual quasi-masterpiece ( Three Friends ), Genesis four albums to get to Foxtrot (and Supper s Ready ), and Jethro Tull five albums to get to Thick as a Brick and none of the debut albums by any of these bands was anywhere near the masterpiece that Zarathustra is.
Indeed, of the eight seminal progressive groups (Crimson, Floyd, Moody Blues, Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant, Tull and ELP), only Crimson s Court and Floyd s Piper are equally great debuts (with ELP s debut coming pretty close). The Zarathustra suite itself is one of the most beautifully and carefully crafted compositions in the history of progressive rock, and I use the word carefully in its literal sense: i.e.
, that great care was taken. The band neither rushes into things, nor lets things sit for too long. Every section whether soft, smooth, slow and simple, or hard, rocking, fast and complex is constructed for maximum effect, with minimal (if any) down time.
Perhaps most remarkably, Galifi and the band are able to convey the story of Nietzsche s Superman (in both lyrics and music) quite well even if one does not understand Italian. For all of these reasons, Zarathustra stands on its own as an incredibly creative, often brilliant, and extremely early (if not seminal) concept suite.
What makes any album a masterpiece?
Obviously, there are the compositional, lyrical, musicianship, production and general execution elements. However, that is not enough. It must have something else: a quality that makes the album not only an exceptional achievement in its time, but also an achievement that transcends its time and, indeed, makes the album timeless.
Although, as noted, the production on Zarathustra sounds somewhat dated, it nevertheless transcends its time, and is not only a timeless masterpiece in the truest sense of that word - but an exceptional, historically important album, and an absolute must-have for any serious prog-rock collection.
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"Zarathustra" is another controversial progressive rock album. Many claim that it is best prog album album to come out of Italy during the 70's, while others claim that it's just basic hard rock with mellotron thrown in.
I was quite moved after listening to "Zarathustra" for the first time because the themes, melodies, and mood-changes are really high-quality. The four awesome compositions (one is 20-minutes long) alternate from soft and delicate, to 70's heavy rock. In my opinion, "Zarathustra" is one of the best progressive rock albums out there.
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