Arthemis
Black Society

I raise my hands and admit it right away; I don't really care much about this album I have in hand. Let's just say it's an excuse to write. The fact is that I'm not feeling particularly well these days and besides some healthy sports, I also need to vent with the help of my trusty PC keyboard. Maybe it's because after a full year without a vacation, I'm starting to feel the need to unplug, and now that this possibility is approaching on the horizon, I'm getting more and more sour and grumpy. Perhaps it’s precisely because the agonizing pause is beginning to reveal itself, letting me glimpse a Monday morning in bed until 10, that I'm like this. Today, I would have liked to tell a couple of clients to go to hell, and I don't even know if my nice smile, so disgustingly fake but impenetrable, managed to hide the true irritation at their incomprehensible and irrational requests.

But what the hell is this cover doing here? Is it possible that I should almost be ashamed of the music I listen to because of these monstrosities? These guys are fairly melodic and fast power metallers from Verona, and the zombie hand rising from the ground, besides earning a rightful place on the podium for the most cliché artwork of 2008, has nothing at all to do with their music. They don't do emo-horror metal. The singer, just to clarify things, has a clean and very high voice, bordering on annoying in some cases when he tries to imitate Kiske. And can you imagine a dead person emerging from their grave and starting to run (double bass drum) and scream with a high and clean voice to scare people??? I read the booklet and notice that, in truth, this Black Society is an original warning, as original as the plot of a porno, against our current corrupt society, too full of egoisms (really???) and the usual talk about the marginal utility of a handful of sand in the Sahara that everyone says. So, dear Arthemis, am I supposed to understand that hand as the evil that needs to be vanquished? Bullshit, you probably had no idea for the drawing and opted for a cover aiming to capture additional market segments outside the only power one. In the end, though, it’s just a cover. Better move on to putting this CD in the player...

Praiseworthy kick to the past for a nice change of sound. The orchestrations wave goodbye and go off to seek space in Scandinavia, and in their place enters a thick guitar that towers with its riffs. On their fifth work, Arthemis got tired of the usual power and gift me with slight thrash influences that brighten my evening. I might not understand a thing, but what, according to most, is the strength of the Veronese band is, in my opinion, the weak link. I'm referring to the singer. Okay, he may be good at singing in his style, but a dirty voice would mesh much better with the bastardization just proposed. If, for example, Jorn Lande were to sing, this CD would rise like the bread from the Mulino Bianco ad.

I realize that my initially fervent desire to write is slightly going astray, and consequently, before bidding you farewell, I'll recommend a few tracks (you won't listen to them) so you can convince yourselves that what I've described really exists. I won't make you work too hard as I stop at the first stage: Fright Train. It's one of the more conventional tracks but shows its teeth with a wild intro that settles during verses and chorus, only to restart with double pedal stabs and riffs in the very appreciated break. In the sad Angels In Black, Garavello's voice thrives, offering an outstanding performance, but with Electric Fire , the music hardens. Sparing melodies and good quality power thrash. The CD runs along these lines to the end, and the result is more than satisfying. Now you’ll forgive me, but I've just decided to go ingest some amber liquid into my gastric system, and consequently, I'm off...