Emphatic Nightmares

Yep, quite a few musicians have been fascinated by Dario Argento’s seminal gothic horror masterpiece… and have done a fairly good job on the music front, mind you; on a strictly underground level, at least when it comes to the metal practitioners cause the UK gothic/dark wavers of the same name did hit the spotlight, and ruled for a bit during the 90’s. We also have the technical deathsters from the States, and of course the Norwegian modern melo-thrash/death stalwarts… weren’t they Susperia, though?

We’re delving into the nightmares of these four artists from London now, and discover that they’ve been reflected in just two compositions, and have been largely woven of dark heavy classic prog-thrash rhythms which on “Hellish Sins” come with dense thick staccato riffs and surreal ambient atmosphere, a dramatic but not exuberantly restless mid-paced march which receives kudos for both the suitable echoing clean vocals and the short but effective lead sections, also tolerating an atmospheric semi-balladic passage. “No One Sleeps” lures the listener initially with a portion of quiet balladic strokes before a wall of intricate stylish riffs rises, another monolithic mid-tempo stride perturbed by bumpier semi-galloping solutions and other more dynamic accumulations, the bassist making himself heard more prominently, not to mention the gorgeous leads again which here beat half the Shrapnel fraternity when in action.

The lead guitar player is a pure sorcerer, and it’s a pity that there isn’t more material offered to hear more of his bedazzling feats… which very well fit into the brooding main canvas, mind you, nicely elevating a more tenebrous section to a more uplifting one without ruining the dominant officiant setting. On the other hand, with the latter’s bigger involvement overshadowing his colleagues’ endeavours may be a likely scenario; but that’s still a speculation as in its current form the hypnotic not extremely diverse delivery is always effective, and although it’s debatable how appetizing it would sound on a full-length release, for a short dark near-17-min long injection it works on all counts, the slightly muddy sound quality only partly hampering the guys’ efforts.

Regardless of how emphatic those nightmares here were, they don’t stand for a thorough scrutinous analysis as those need more than a 17-min long sequence to be truly objective. The band members left it at that, a dark uncanny sketch of something ominous, something macabre, something suspirial that alone kept the groovy/aggro hordes away from the Isles in the early-90’s, winning a few more precious months of life for the underground resistance over there.