Italian ambient doom metal space prog guru, Paul Chain (who's actual Italian name is Paola Catena) was a youth musical prodigy who originally formed a band called Death S.S. (no Nazi connection) with vocalist Steve Sylvester in 1977. They went on to produce a handful of releases peppered with dark, Sabbath-inflected doom metal, and worked up a stage show that would possibly have made luminaries like Alice Cooper take pause. Several years later, Chain's spiritual beliefs caused him to leave Death S.S. With this career move, Paul set the groundwork for an eclectic solo career, producing dark, emotional music explorations, into genres as seemingly far afield as ambient electronics, hard rock improvisation, psych, etc. When it comes to Paul Chain, you really don't know what you're getting into until you slap the album into your stereo and sit back to let its soundscapes enter your ears. Much of his work has a very spontaneous, improvised feel, whether it's slowly shifting organ music, drony rock jams filled with wild guitar soloing or something else entirely.
