A welcome return for gothic rock fans: after five years of silence, Milan's Bloody Mary are back in the game. I remember well the enthusiasm that surrounded the band's first releases, at a time when the internet did not yet carry the weight it has today and paper fanzines still had their market... ah, the good old days! Leaving nostalgia aside, let us look at the tracks of this "Anno Zero", which confirms all the good things the Lombard band has shown in the past.
"I keep pretending" does not waste a second and immediately unfolds a crystalline, lacquered and elegant gothic rock that made me think of The Cure rather than HIM or the 69 Eyes. Of course, love and dark metal references will not be missing, but it still seems to me that the band is more tied to the dark wave of the late '80s/early '90s than to the Finnish sound of some ten years later. Vaguely electronic rhythms in "Crawling", while "Chase the Nowhere" allows Aldebran his slyest and most bewitching vocal performance.
"Concrete Jungle" is three tight minutes dominated by omnipresent keyboards; "Judith" is radio-friendly and "Frozen" is excellent too, its sly chorus sticking after two listens. "So far Away" is the ballad, anguished and elegant at the same time; the harder "I am gonna miss you" closes the album.
An immediately accessible tracklist, with no filler and very catchy: well done, damned Bloody Mary - I wish you milestones on a European level.
First published in Italian; in English here. Where it appeared ↗