One of my favorite bands is back with another patented one-two punch of releases, a tradition they have mastered once before in 2018. The second 2025 release is a “Live :Waves from the Underground”, performed at the Studiosette in Rome in October 2023. Their previous 2022 release “Daedalus” was a universally praised masterpiece, garnering high marks for technical merit as well as artistic Impression. The great news is the line-up remains the same, : the amazing Alfio Costa on a variety of keyboards, drummer extraordinaire Davide Guidoni, scintillating guitarist Ettore Salati and Bobo Aiolfi on the thunderous bass guitar. The 8 tracks also include 2 vocal guests but is really an instrumentally centric opus of the highest order.
The title track catapults immediately into a musical path that is anchored on the symphonic side of things, but in a soundtrack-like manner, with dense atmospherics that show neither haste nor hysterics, though the mood can be quite surly and despairing, driven, as it is by tectonic drum fills and colossal torrents of blazing mellotron. There is a distinct aroma of the Crimson King and Italian stalwarts Goblin in the emanations presented here, in that a sense of trepidation and doom perseveres like a dense fog that seeps into the pores of the unforgiving. Ettore even peels of a glistening guitar line that sears the mind and even persists on the next piece “Attic Clouds” , a rhythmically oblique thrashing of confusion and looming dread that would fuel any horror flick known to man. The gruesome mood is mechanical yet greasy as if rolling on well-oiled lubrication, a reptilian motion that remains methodical until the ideal moment is ready and the release coiled to strike. Briefly only echo and resonance, Bobo marshals the drum parade, Davide clanging in the distance, as the feisty mellotron appears out of the darkened skies, pouncing mercilessly on the defenceless senses.
Complete change of pace on the opening vocal of “Twilight”, a tenebrous requiem of glinting piano and harrowing voice, with subtle synthesized orchestrations, that metamorphoses into a pyrotechnic guitar meteor amid the trembling stars. There is a tranquility in the serene bass ruffle that seeks only to reassure, fomenting an eventual entrance for Ettore to display some dexterous picking, crystalline and awe-inspiring in its subtlety.
I did mention a notion of scary movie earlier, didn’t I ? Well, “Horror Vacui” certainly fits the bill, a mellotron-infested cascade, shoved along by a suitable bass trough, suddenly exploding into a fiery storm of Crimsonian vehemence and immediately dismissed by a romantic piano interlude, only to reignite another round of volatile destruction. Obdurate, erratic and teasingly serene , you never have any clue where this may be going, like Charon on the river Styx, destination and destiny unknown.
The cavernous “Simulacra” offers bombast in a variety of exploratory directions, as if offering another red nightmare, adorned with spooky synth pools of perspiration and slashes of incisive blades of sound carving into the brain. Images of somber reptiles slithering along Roman mosaic tiles, heading towards the roar of the arena nearby, where the starving lions await their next lunch. Gruesome effigies crucified along the road to freedom, impudent crows cawing with disdain.
The sultry femininity of “Mademoiselle X” comes as a most welcome distraction, the curving bass highlighting the softness of skin, the aroused mellotron caressing like a silky veil, building up into a glowing sonic image of beauty incarnate. Then the seductive lead guitar joins in on the flattery, the atmosphere veers into carnal exuberance. An extraordinary track that deserves the gift of eternal love, devotion and surrender.
The next 13 minute onslaught has a title that leaves no room for questioning ,“D.O.O.M” diabolically smashes into the soul with a searing display of pyrotechnics that unexplainably (but not really surprisingly) comes to a grinding halt, enough time for a forlorn piano to exalt gently, and then reignite into a magnificent melody, a pattern that will be repeated until the very end. From eloquence to eruption we go, back and forth in a domineering and deranged gait, a roller coaster of emotions from the two polar extremes, a challenging exercise in contrasts. Toss in a variety of sonic effects and noises to further confuse and numb the mind into subservience, the rash guitar takes over the pace, rambling along with the bruising mellotron, nasty bass currents and demonic drumming outro from Guidoni that fades into the sunset.
There is a bonus track , “Return from the Spiral Mind” , a variation of the previous album’s mainstay, the 2-part epic “Journey through the Spiral Mind” which spanned a chunky 22 minutes. Here , the onus is closer to Floydian investigations, albeit in a more biting setting, with Alfio displaying his talent on a variety of keyboard instruments. There is less ‘sturm und drang’ fright than on the main album, hence coming across as a calming exit, a warmer touch and a guarantee of more future music from this impeccable Italian powerhouse.
5 Decrypted voids
