italy

Merendina Will Have…Where We’re Going… Indelirium2005 When album cover stickers mention people other than the artist, such as engineers or guest performers, they shortchange and potentially overshadow the artist. That’s the case here. The sticker says “Produced by Steve Austin, TODAY IS THE DAY, Featuring Steve Austin on Guest Vocals and Synth.” No mention of […]

Black SwanMystical Elysian Love Self-Released2006 Not the Anthrax singer nor the adult film star, Belladonna is an Italian band that falls somewhere between hard and goth rock. But these terms are really too crude to describe this band. The former implies a certain simplicity, and the latter a certain aesthetic, neither of which apply here. […]

Wings of DeathOutro – The Breath of a New Day Self-Released2006 I firmly believe in “it’s not what you have, it’s what you do with it.” Italy’s SoulDaemon is a great example. Using only bass, drum machine, vocals, and effects, this one-man band has crafted a strange but cool EP in Dead World. Though the […]

Eternal LightAnubi’s Call Adrenaline/Steelheart2005 Why haven’t I heard of Derdian until now? Granted, symphonic Italian power metal ain’t exactly my bag. But on their first album, these guys do the style so flawlessly, I wonder why their name isn’t up there with certain others in the recent resurgence of power metal. Maybe it’s due to […]