Il Segno Del Comando
Der Golem

Prague...... dark city, of ancient knowledge. Rich with streets dimly lit by the gentle glow of a skylight and paths seldom tread by human feet. A city full of legends, crossroads of millennia-old stories and myths, guarded by old men whose wisdom is full of unspeakable secrets..... Prague gothic, surreal, unreal, cradle of all the occult sciences that chase and merge for the east and west, philosophical, hermetic..... prophetic.

A freezing evening in 1891. In a simple room, lit only by a faint candle, a young writer admired his city and dreamed. He was weak and tired: too weak to fight and too tired to continue living: why, he continually asked himself, continue to live without any purpose? Why continue to love if one is not loved in return? His fingers had begun to twitch around the revolver now loaded when suddenly the young man saw an ancient and dusty book slip under the door of his study....

"I took the booklet and began to leaf through it. Contents: spiritism, occultism, witchcraft... These topics, which until then I had known only by hearsay, so greatly sparked my interest that I put the revolver back in the drawer..."

Thus Gustav Meyrink began his esoteric quest, studying principally the occult and kabbalistic sciences, embarking on what he himself defined as the "path of awakening": a continuous spiritual elevation thanks to esoteric wisdom, opposed to common human life denominated "sleep". Twenty-four years later, all this culminated in his literary masterpiece: "Der Golem".

Genoa, about a century later.
Everything has changed since that distant 1915, but Meyrink's novel's charm has remained unchanged over time. We are in 1995, when Mercy and Diego Banchero (members of Malombra, a band already active since the '80s), decide to start their own side-project that is different from their mother band: Il Segno Del Comando. And they do so by paying homage to one of the most interesting Italian TV dramas of the '70s, a faithful adaptation, in turn, of Giuseppe D'Agata's novel entitled "Il Segno Del Comando".
Right from this detail, one can perceive all the originality of the Genoese group, which attracts the interest of insiders and outsiders alike with their first self-titled album released by the historic and glorious label Black Widow (dedicated to cult genres in Italy such as dark, doom, gothic, and progressive).
So, we come to 2002, after various vicissitudes, the year of release of this "Der Golem". All the mysticism and esotericism of the novel magically revive in the grooves of this enigmatic album from the cover itself: Il Segno Del Comando fascinates the listener with its dark progressive influenced by new wave. Unlike the first album, in "Der Golem" we find a certain experimentation and a greater use of electronics, as in "Komplott Charousek", followed by typically seventies tracks like "Golem" and "Salon Loisitschek", one of the best tracks on the CD. There are also icy and gloomy instrumentals like "Funeral In Prague" and the poignant "Myriam". But the peak of the album, where you can breathe all the atmosphere of Meyrink's masterpiece, is "I the Magician, I the Hanged": a symphonic gothic rock full of pathos thanks to Mercy's masterful interpretation, powerful and obsessive, with its jazzy stride.

At the end of the listening, one remains entranced and confused, like after the end of a dream: and it is precisely this sensation that Il Segno Del Comando wants to convey, namely the impression of something shrouded in mist, which we cannot precisely identify, but which nevertheless hasn't left us indifferent and urges us to go beyond. Because the art of the Genoese group is not limited to music alone, but embraces multiple fields, as witnessed by the highly detailed philosophical-esoteric texts and the evocative booklet featuring Wegener's cinematic Golem and images from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", a 1920s expressionist masterpiece. Yet another demonstration, in short, of the presence in Italy of excellent bands and great music.

"O my Prague, where are you?"