The aptly titled album is the seventh by the Italian trio, and the third I’ve been privileged to review. As is their want their lyrics are both in English and Italian, with the latter songs seeming far broodier and melancholy to me.

Heavy atmospheric keyboards are quickly washed away by the drums and guitars then a vocal roar, before coming back as melodic backing for the second guitar as the near death vocals of the verse for “Without Lies” work their way towards the lead break that soars above everything else, when the drums pick up the tempo the vocals pick up their pace to race towards the end of the song.

“The Night of the Witch” has a heavy bass rhythm, but a light airy keyboard that is occasionally drowned out by the driving guitars before they fade back to allow Mancan’s vocals to come to the fore as Demil’s tempo changes are accentuated by his dynamic drum fills.

Mancan’s popping bass notes cut through his clean vocals on “Vampiri”, as Nikko’s guitars go from short choppy bursts to long sustained power chords, while his keyboards fill the sound with their ever-present atmospheric ambience before his lead guitar kicks in to give the slow song an added boost.

While guitars are slowish with a regular rhythm, the drums power through their tempo changes using fills as the keyboards simply hold long chords for “Tenebra Shirts”.

Towards the end of “The Dark”, the keyboards take on a rather discordant sound that give me an uneasy shiver down my spine, but as I’m assuming that’s exactly what they were after I’m not going to complain about how irritating it is.

The slow and steady tempo of “Run” is definitely a marathon rather than a sprint, as it plods along towards the very electronic intro sounds of “The Clown” which morphs into a relatively allegro song with a very melodic vocal arrangement.

Light percussive sounds are joined by a gently picked guitar, then the twangs of the bass are followed by a deep whisper before the notes of a keyboard come in, but as the vocals slowly become more intense so does the guitar and the slightly gruff shout of “Il Divoratore” is the only real break from the melodious texture of the song.

It feels really strange for them to be ending the album on such an upbeat number, but “Rosa Mistica” is exactly that. It has a slightly dance feel to the drum beat and tempo, even though the heavy guitar rhythm is more darkwave in nature, the growled vocals are heading towards doom death. Actually, a rather nice way to end things on high note for a change.

(8/10 Marco Gaminara)

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