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Rating: A gloomy and rainy day: that's what you need to watch a good Doom Metal concert.
I don't mean the '90s Anglo-Saxon Doom nor that of bands like Sleep or similar. We're talking about classic Doom, certainly expanded and hazy, the kind that with the sound of Candlemass and Pentagram (different from ours anyway) laid the foundations, or if you prefer, the cornerstone for the entire genre.
Gloomy and rainy day, I was saying. You also realize you don't precisely remember where the Tunnel in Milan is located. A friend and I stop off in an apparently disreputable area: four supposed dealers and a few human figures moving between the heavy afternoon drops. We grab a really nauseating kebab and leave, without much fuss, to see the legends. Who are they? Why, the Saint Vitus!
At the entrance of the venue, there are only FOUR of us! Unbelievable! Have Italians lost their minds? I anxiously ask a few questions to those present, and fortunately, someone assures me the estimate is around a hundred participants. I breathe a sigh of relief. We go in, and after an expensive Coca Cola, sipped almost like it was a beer, some gloomy and sinister characters appear on stage.
They are not the Vitus but the supporting band: Mos Generator. Not knowing the group, I can't even list the song titles or explain certain details. They play for a good half hour a mix of stoner like Kyuss and Orange Goblin. A band with guts, that's for sure, but I don't know if they'll achieve great success.
It's time for the legend. I see Wino and Chandler wandering around the venue. I stop the vocalist for a moment and have a chat in English. Result: I understood a quarter of what he told me. But who cares! At least I got Wino's autograph! The Vitus (plural of Vito, of course) are threatening: large, heavily tattooed, quite drunk, and eager to churn out "slow" notes.
They start with songs from the latest album: nothing exceptional but nothing bad either. I clearly remember "Let Them Fall" and "The Bleeding Ground." Nice choice. A band member, don't ask me who because I was ordering a beer, invites us to take a leap back in time, and magically, the notes of the songs contained in "Hallow's Victim" start playing. The peak is reached with the earth-shattering "War Is Our Destiny," because it's a ridiculously great song and because, on this occasion, it's played with enviable grit by our guys.
It's the unmistakable sign that the Vitus have aged well.
There's also room for tracks from "Mournful Cries," an album, in the opinion of the writer, far too underrated.
And of course, we get to the tracks of the masterpiece signed by Wino and company: the most representative songs of that magical album known as "Born Too Late." It starts with "Dying Inside" and continues, in random order, with the title track and "Look Behind You." A very long and dark song is also performed. Maybe it's part of "V," a work I've never heard.
In conclusion, a truly heartfelt concert. Our guys, besides not being pretentious at all, are genuine institutions of Doom and Metal generally speaking. Money well spent, and music that, believe me, translates excellently live as well!
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