Desolate Sun
Descending Stairways

What do we expect from music in an era where we are overwhelmed by it, to say the least? That it gives us emotions. But, despite the wide range of choices, the product does not always meet this requirement.

Emotions and suggestions are not lacking in the second musical attempt by the duo from our country, despite the name, Desolate Sun, who, after a self-titled album described by critics as 'of great charm', have released a CD titled 'Descending Stairways'. It truly can be said that expectations not only are not disappointed, but the product is of refined, exquisite craftsmanship. If everything was already in its embryonic stage in the first EP, in this one, we are faced with an incredible maturity and musical variety. The guitar is usually the main element, in its frantic chase of an apparently undefined goal. I say apparently because this EP, starting with the title, unfolds like a series of living tableaux that have as a subject an old house where the protagonist returns. Therefore, it becomes essential to listen to the pieces with the lyrics at hand, which are extremely poetic and descriptive of the story that, track after track, enlightens us on the journey of a man returning to a place where there once was joy, smiles, and now nothing remains but darkness and dust. We like to imagine it is that house partially depicted on the cover.

Compared to the previous EP, the voice has abandoned any hesitation and has become gentle, almost feminine and at times capable of evoking that of Jim Morrison. It is certainly one of the surprises of an album that is beautiful, robust, expression of achieved artistic maturity. The musical beginning of the CD, 'The Only Way To Live', is truly overwhelming, reflecting all the pain and effort of reaching such a memory-laden and now pain-bringing destination. Angelo's voice sometimes becomes naive, childlike, the weight of the past is strong, but it is Luca's gritty voice that reminds us (as in the track 'Butterflies Fall', largely entrusted to him) that "the sky cries and the butterflies fall". This EP is not just a traditional album but a condensed mix of music, poetry, and references to other artistic genres, like literature and cinema, as if to say that when we face an authentic artistic product, Art becomes one. And then how not to remember that the title of the CD echoes that of a book by the doctor writer Mario Tobino, 'Per le antiche scale' (1972) also set in an enclosed place or how not to think that the fallen butterflies are perhaps the rebellious angels of a film by Marco Tullio Giordana, also sadly fallen ('La caduta degli angeli ribelli', 1981). Angelo's splendid vocal insertion in 'Numb' and 'Never Ending Distrust' is definitely remarkable. The circle closes with 'Gone', the only purely instrumental track, which recalls the sound of a music box and which infuses an atmosphere of achieved peace for the protagonist.

Thus, on their second release, Desolate Sun not only surpass by far the first attempt, which is not always easy because often the second represents an iceberg against which many have crashed the first. More, they create a sort of musical poem, in which from the graphics to the lyrics, from the music to the voices, nothing is left to chance. In the music firmament, therefore, shines a new star, that of Desolate Sun, now rightly not only an expression of the gothic/dark metal genre, but capable of making converts even among those who are not enthusiasts of the genre.