BALLO DELLE CASTAGNE

Il Ballo delle Castagne is an Italian band that was formed in 2007 by two musicians coming from different experiences: vocalist and lyricist Vinz, previously brainchild of a "low-fi project" called Calle della Morte and Marco Garegnani, previously with a band called The Green Man, who is the main composer of the band and plays guitars, sitar, keyboards and moog. The line up was completed by Diego Banchero (Malombra, Recondita Stirpe and Egida Aurea) on bass and Jo Jo on drums. The name of the band means "The Chestnuts Ball" and it was inspired by a legend involving the Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503) and his luxurious habits: the "Chestnuts Ball" was a kind of "Satanic Sabbath" where naked women used to dance in the light of candelabrums picking chestnuts from the floor with their mouths. The music of Il Ballo delle Castagne is an interesting blend of hard rock, progressive and new wave...

Il Ballo delle Castagne debut eponymous album was released in 2009 by the independent label HauRuck SPQR. The sound is gothic and dark with many psychedelic passages...

The opener "Anthem no. 1" is an hypnotic instrumental that leads to the church-like organ notes of the gloomy "Il tormento di Demetra" (The agony of Demeter), freely inspired by the Homeric hymn to Demeter and depicting in words and music a journey through the storm, straight in the vortex of the pain...

Next comes "Specchi e perline colorate" (Mirrors and coloured beads), in my opinion the weakest track on this work. It starts as a silly new wave piece but after three minutes it develops in a psychedelic dream with a good guitar solo...

"Sole e acciaio" (Sun and steel) was inspired by a book by Yukio Mishima and deals with ritual suicide... "Overturn the silence of the death with the eloquence of the steel that is inside me / My soul rises, my body is expanding without end... ". The music here is mystic and powerful in the meantime alternating raw guitar riffs, ecstatic sitar passages and organ rides...

The last track "Il pianto di Cristo su Gerusalemme" (The cry of Christ upon Jerusalem) is a kind of long exotic raga with an oriental flavour. A voice from the East and a voice from the West, a voice from the four winds and a voice "against Jerusalem and its temple"...

On the whole this is an interesting album but not an essential one. This band has a good potential and I think that they could express it better in the future. If you like bands like Antonius Rex give them a chance and have a listen to their music on their website...