The five Italian "eye-catchers" have one thing to offer above all: a hefty dose of androgyny in the veins of their frontman Aldebran - the Italian Vile Valo? The counterpart to Michelle Darkness? The Bill Kaulitz of the goth'n'roll scene? His vocal register now and then leaning towards Peter Steele à la "Bloody Kisses", gothic meets rock'n'roll complete with looks that kill and enchant... a lady-killing monster as the eye-catcher of a backing band that otherwise, image-wise, gives off rather a sense of dullness.
Au contraire to their frontman, the music of these Italians, celebrating their first decade, is then less sensational. Goth rock, that is: sweet and nice (and pretty), always aiming for the earworm chorus, mastered completely smooth by Mika Jussila - and yet, surprisingly, a few really good tracks have made it onto "- Party Music For Graveyards".
One of them, admittedly, is not by BLOODY MARY but by the honourable and adorable RAMONES, is called "Pet Sematary" and is god anyway; the others are the opener "Velvet", gloriously distorted by electronic synths, the briskly delivered "Before you Fade", and "Gettin' Older", which comes up with surprises at times.
That makes four out of twelve - not exactly lavish, you think? Yes and no! The rest lies somewhere between nice but harmless and nice yet somehow enchanting. Enchanting enough, in fact, that a slightly wobbly three can be justified.
First published in German; in English here. Where it appeared ↗