Bloody Mary are a band that has been active for almost fifteen years: the group took its first steps on the Milanese gothic rock scene in the early 2000s, then arrived at the debut album Blood'n'Roll, which also took them to perform outside Italy to wide acclaim, and six years after their second work, Party Music For The Graveyard, they return with Anno Zero.
The record presents itself as dark, yet elegant and refined, mixing several different influences, from The 69 Eyes and Him to the gloomier drifts of The Cure - a sound that therefore also ties in perfectly with the theme behind the lyrics, which paint a futuristic society dominated by violence and despair. The cover already seems to announce it, with its post-industrial and post-apocalyptic scenery; despite this, in the foreground, a flower in bloom gives hope that nothing is yet entirely lost.
From the very first track, I Keep Pretending, the sound turns out to be rocking but veiled by a certain gloom, and the following Crawling confirms it with its evocative, soft arpeggio, in which a few - wisely placed - electronic elements also appear, darkening the sound further.
Did You Let Me Down is the album's first slow song, where the versatility of Aldebran's voice becomes most evident, alternating a deep, enveloping delivery with a higher one shaded with drama, while with Concrete Jungle Bloody Mary come close to metal, drawing near in particular to the industrial sound so popular above all beyond the Alps, in Germany: the riffing becomes tighter and the rhythm laid down by the drums more pressing and aggressive.
The second part of the record confirms the sound of the first: the tracks follow one another in a linear way without becoming tiring, and so we reach the second ballad, So Far Away, perhaps a little too long-winded, but which leads us to the last song of this work, Am I Gonna Miss You?, in which the tones become more vigorous, up to the finale, where the sound of an explosion seems to seal not only the end of the record but also of the world described in Anno Zero - who knows whether there will be a chance of a new beginning?
All things considered, the sound Bloody Mary offer plays above all on atmospheres that are at times gloomy and at others melancholic, and it is the voice that has the leading role, together with the dark setting created by simple guitar riffs and insistent phrasing, all supported by an essential rhythm section; moreover, the variety of the tracks makes for a pleasant listen.
To conclude, Anno Zero is the right record for lovers of that light but still very effective dark sound who do not disdain crossovers between different genres.
First published in Italian; in English here. Where it appeared ↗