Let me say it: every now and then, among black demons, death and core furies and gothic power symphonies, it is a pleasure to be carried away by what is the natural heir of 1980s dark music, a scene that has given us bands and artists who made history and influenced myriads of creatures of the night all over the world.
I am starting to be of an age at which, faced with works like Anno Zero by Milan's Bloody Mary, I cannot help referring to Andrew Eldritch and his Sisters of Mercy, or to Wayne Hussey and the first records of The Mission, without forgetting the dark master Carl McCoy and, essential for anyone who loves these sounds, Fields of the Nephilim.
The Lombard band, born at the dawn of the new millennium, already has two full-lengths to its name ("Blood'n'Roll" from 2005 and "Party Music for Graveyards" from 2010) and as many EPs, and returns this year, again on Valery Records, with Anno Zero, a perfect example of dark rock devoted to the sound of the bands mentioned, yet steeped in the gothic substance that is what makes the difference compared with the glories of that era.
More than thirty years have passed and, in the meantime, we have been able to enjoy the superb work of Type O Negative and the transformation of The 69 Eyes from a rock'n'roll band into a black creature of the night, and this is where Bloody Mary's sound comes together: an excellent blend of the eighties components and those of the new millennium, skilfully measured out by their innate ability to write songs that get into the listener's bloodstream at the first listen - a handful of hits to feed to the DJs of ambiguous rock clubs, where in an instant you might find yourself serving as a drink for beautiful and cruel vampires.
An excellent production and songwriting that is honestly above average for the genre make Anno Zero an album absolutely not to be underestimated: the musicians, who, let me remind you, have some twenty years of experience behind them by now, know how to handle the material, and I am not exaggerating when I say that, especially outside Italy (for example in the more receptive Germany), this album could make a real splash.
Aldebran proves to be the perfect singer for the genre, a bit Ville Valo, a bit Jirki 69, and the whole band goes like a dream on the wings of a dark/gothic sound that does not hold back a few metallic hints in the guitar tones and, at times, good martial rhythms in the wake of the, alas, better-known Deathstars.
With songs like I Keep Pretending, Frozen and the intense ballad So Far Away, Anno Zero hands us a band finally ready to face its more famous European counterparts without any reverential fear - indeed, with every credential needed to become one of the reference names of the genre, a status that, at this point, belongs to Bloody Mary by right.
First published in Italian; in English here. Where it appeared ↗