"L’OCCIDENTE" @ FILTH FORGE (I) by Il Levriero Staff
01/04/2008 at 21:35
Great review @ FILTH FORGE (I) by Simon V.
“One year after the striking debut masterpiece "Disobbedisco!", IANVA are back with an EP that will help easing a bit the burning desire for the much awaited second full-length by this most extraordinary Italian band. The new release deals with the West, a topic very familiar (and, since a few years, quite inflationed) to the neofolk genre, and the choice for the cover artwork perfectly matches with male singer and composer Mercy’s vision: the Andrea Doria, shown alongside two optimistic and joyful passengers and the Italian flag, was a sort of Italian equivalent of the Titanic, a transatlantic that sank on a morning in 1956 after a clash with a Swedish ship. It seems that IANVA are suggesting a simile between the unfortunate sea disaster and the West itself, sinking and dying everyday more. The title-track recalls the majestic style we’ve been used to appreciate on "Disobbedisco!", that proud and epic folk-rock with an exquisite progressive and orchestral touch, and enriched by the charm and writing quality of the best European chanson. Mercy’s lyrics are extremely bitter and don’t seem to leave any hope for our dusking civilization, "whose single holy thing left is a bone on the butt". His analysis is, however, very far the usual neofolk stereotyped visions, it portraits sarcastically, for example, the different souls (northern, east, southern) inside Western culture, and points at the castrating chains of politically correctness, which prevent anyone to speak truly out. The second song is "Santa Luce Dei Macelli", and the voice is this time the powerful one of Stefania D’Alterio. While "L’Occidente" sounds like a melancholic and funeral hymn to Western civilization, the lyrics here evoke a completely different scene, that of ancestral sacral rites, between Greece and southern Italy (via the original colonies of Magna Grecia), where pagan traditions are mixed with Paleochristian celebrations, and the magical, divinatory and religious authority is supremely female. The central figure described in all her might has the likeness of a Greek goddess but also of a Christian martyress, and the final line, reciting "it is again time to praise the Gods standing on our feet", sounds like a declaration of pride, of will to fight the decadence, of rebellion against an end that could be maybe avoided. The other two tracks featured on the EP are "Il Sereno e La Tempesta", an excellent instrumental that gives once again proof of the outstanding level of the musicians of IANVA, and "In Battaglia", more than a simple cover version of Strawb’s "The Battle": this is an adaptation to Italian of the British acid folk legend’s classic, where the lyrics have been changed and reinterpreted to evoke a different war scenery, settled in WWI. An exercise of pure poetry and refined style adding another solid brick to the marvellous castle of IANVA’s music and art. "L’Occidente" is a much welcome confirmation of the Italian band’s talent, extremely recommended to everyone, not just to whom spent whole evenings listening to "Disobbedisco!". The wait for the second full-length is, however, not eased at all, it’s now made even more unbearable by the excellence of this new material!".
(Simon V. - FILTH FORGE (I) - 2008)
Our biggest thnx to Simon V. and all Filth Forge Staff
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