Heavy Lies the Crown

There's nothing wrong with giving a little more visibility to cool, unpretentious local acts, as long as they reach a minimum standard of talent; thus I go on with Bloody Unicorn from Padua, Italy, and a new EP full of, well, blood and, well, unicorns.

Still, now that the charm of novelty is gone, that the unicorn is more or less tamed and the time has come to focus more critically on the music, I can affirm it loud and clear: no, I don't like Irene Scapin's clean vocals. Song after song she keeps on imposing her over-the-top yells, with a vicious tendency to go out of tune. Hell, here's a band which has built an imagery of carefully calculated silliness from the clash of the extremes, from inflatable unicorns to blood exaggeratedly dripping from everywhere, and just cannot fully exploit their most extreme asset, that is, the girl's bestial growling. But no – she'll scarcely use her impressive low range, favouring, even in the harsh parts, a more lukewarm melodeath bark which doesn't really distinguish her from the ranks of the countless others who, often, have long done better.

Can we still speak of death metal, even melodic, anyway? Bloody Unicorn seems to have grown into a full-blown symphonic metal act now, where the ever-present programmed orchestral layers drive the songs. Call it symphonic extreme metal perhaps, it doesn't change the fact the keyboards and synthetic strings reign supreme at the expense of the guitars behind. At least the drums have kept their organic sound from the first demo, the drummer his momentum and sober imagination; more than the riffs, too muffled down, more than la signorina Scapin herself, he's the one to be remembered. Is also worth noting the fact that, though the band has no official bass player credited, most of time a strong metallic bass is clearly heard pounding in the background.

The compositions themselves are heavy, gently chaotic and overall pleasant. It starts with the mid-tempo Do or Die, of heroic soul with its grand opening, pompous keyboards and blastbeats all-included; in reflection, a misleading opener, solemn all-you-want but a tad too wise after all. Burning Battlefield, flagship track previously released as a single, is mostly remarkable for its extended guitar solo, old-school style, a unique occurrence here. The fast gallop opening Ride the Unicorn inaugurates a fancy moment of self-awareness, self-parody, with a faintly humorous piano solo to boot. Perhaps they tend to lose some of their initial subtlety, and with it their power, in the two last songs, the longest, but not the most memorable – remember she yells, she yells, and that's getting on the nerves after a while. Alright, the little thing catches up just in time for the closing couple of minutes when, eventually, the guitar takes its revenge for a final dialog with a few extra grand piano arpeggios.

Anecdotal? In the grand scheme of things, probably. At least Bloody Unicorn can boast a slight, still very personal, sense of refreshing perversion. That's already something. Keep the quadruped running, girl and guys.

Highlight: Do or Die.