Single Review: The Next Life by Aria Mariano

By Vince Leigh (John Farnham, Pseudo Echo, Tina Arena)

It’s not every day that earthday.org, part of the UN, sponsors a musical release, but that’s just the case with multiskilled music artist Aria Mariano’s (aka Mariano Schiavolini) latest track, The Next Life.

In support of their initiatives in 2022 for animals and their habitat, The Next Life has the organization’s blessing. Aria has merged genres—hip-hop, rap, classic pop, and adult-orientated rock—to create an effective and accessible track with a decent amount of necessary grit, underscoring an overt and timely message.

The lyric features two perspectives, the verses (and rap sections) reflecting the doomsayer’s (and a justified position it is at that) and the chorus revealing the lamentable state on behalf of endangered wildlife: it seems they’ve already given up on this life. Although the verse outlines a pitiful scenario, ‘Pollution and poaching habitats broken / Fangs, claws, and strength couldn’t save them from man’, there is nonetheless a sense of hope beating throughout The Next Life. When a rap-driven bridge section arrives, the shift from resignation to an alternative mindset aimed directly at the audience helps create a firmer sense of positivity: ‘Even the strongest need protection / Let’s switch perspective I’m asking the question.’

A notable figure in the Italian progressive rock scene, Aria is the founding member of renowned Italian prog-rock band Celeste (dubbed ‘the Italian King Crimson’) and has a long and rich history across various musical cultures. Passionate about bringing the world together through music, Aria has since gone on to orchestrate projects across LA, Prague, Johannesburg, and more recently, collaborations with the late Makeba’s band members, Thuthukani Cele (of Lucky Dube fame), and the famous Soweto Gospel Choir. With a musical history spanning the creation of leading Italian rock record label Dischi Noi (RCA Distribution), collaborating with the likes of Kit Woolven (David Bowie, Thin Lizzy), Nick Griffiths (Pink Floyd, Roger Waters), and Daniel Boone (The Who, Kraftwerk), and concert production on Rock at Midnight for Italia 1 TV, Aria’s legacy is self-evident.

The Next Life is not only a satisfying, rousing kind of pop-rock track but a protest song; however congenial and seemingly passive it might sound, its appeal is as vital and critical as it gets.

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