Bloody Mary are one of Italy's emerging gothic metal bands, a genre that certainly has a sizeable audience in our country. The Milanese group has been active since 2000 and is made up of Aldebran on vocals, formerly the singer of the disbanded Jadran, Stranger and LaMountain on guitars, LaRouge on bass and Jürgen on drums. Over these years the guys have built up solid live experience playing in various clubs around the peninsula, particularly in northern Italy, and last summer they produced the four-track EP Rosemadder, recently reviewed on this site.
The night at the Indian offered a rather unusual programme, with Bloody Mary's concert in pure gothic metal style, preceded, however, by a performance from the metalheads Headbangers, while afterwards people danced on the club's three floors to a very wide musical programme ranging from electro-trance to classic goth and metal. As was to be expected, given such a rich offering, the audience was extremely varied, even if, as often happens, fans of the different genres gathered in the different rooms without mixing much.
Bloody Mary took the stage well after midnight: the members stand out for a carefully crafted look with plenty of PVC, leather, fishnet tops, wild hairstyles and make-up. They start playing with great conviction while real scenes of delirium break out around them. A dozen friends and fans had in fact followed the band to this Tuscan date and, for the whole length of the concert, danced and sang with them, cheered them on, even snatching the microphone from the singer to sing the chorus of a few songs. In the end this excess of enthusiasm perhaps ended up harming the concert, because it all seemed too over the top and so ended up being annoying for those who were there to listen attentively. The effect, however, was undoubtedly felt by Bloody Mary, who delivered a gritty, convincing and striking show. On stage Aldebran is very busy: he kneels, lies down, writhes, dances, often strikes poses, while in front of him the fans give vent to their exhilaration.
I should say that before this date I knew the band only for "The 2nd Chance", a nice song whose MP3 was on a Ritual compilation, and which, incidentally, I believe the band played at the Indian. Theirs is a rather poppy blend of metal and gothic, so much so that the name most often associated with Bloody Mary is that of the Finns HIM. In concert the songs struck me as fairly good, if a little too light, well played and delivered with emphasis by Aldebran, who, besides a "killer look", proves to have a fine voice. They are very sparkling, fun songs that are a pleasure to listen to: the only somewhat pointless moments of the concert were those in which the band lingered over instrumental intros. Confirming this somewhat "cheeky" character of Bloody Mary came their cover of "Face to face", an 1980s electro-pop song by the Twins, a group that vanished as fast as it had found success. The version played at the Indian was certainly great fun and raised a smile from more than one listener, especially the slightly more "seasoned" ones (like me...).
At the end of the concert I exchanged a few words with the people of Blasted Management, who look after the band's activities, and with Aldebran, whom, incidentally, I had already had the chance to talk to in '97 in the Tele+ television studios, where we from Ver Sacrum were presenting our book Gothica while he was there to sing with Jadran. So I learned that the band is preparing its first full-length album, which will collect the material from the various EPs released so far, and then plans to record an electronic music project, also under the Bloody Mary name, whose title will be Artemisia - something I am honestly awaiting with great curiosity. The band has several dates planned in northern Italy in the coming days: if you love gothic metal I recommend catching one of their concerts, but even if you do not normally "tune in" to that kind of sound, Bloody Mary live will not fail to entertain you.
First published in Italian; in English here. Where it appeared ↗