Alphataurus

Formed in Milan in 1971, the Italian rock outfit Alphataurus delivered a debut whose intensity recalled an unholy collision of Uriah Heep and Van der Graaf Generator. Issued the next year on the band’s own Magma imprint, the self-titled album quickly became a collector’s favorite among European prog enthusiasts, its reputation resting equally on an antiwar-themed triple-gatefold sleeve and on the music itself—a five-track dramatic soundscape rich in shifting moods and textures. Sessions for a follow-up began later that year, yet collapsed before anything beyond instrumental demos could be finished; the group disbanded, and those recordings surfaced only in 1993 as Dietro l’Uragano, material of appeal solely to completists. Alphataurus reconvened in 2010.