Stigmathe
Lo Sguardo dei Morti

THE REVIEW

As mentioned in the other review, the main legacy of Stigmathe is given by the two 7" EPs, twin and specular, dated 1983 and 1985: "Suoni Puri Dalla Libertà" and this "Lo Sguardo dei Morti". Twin because both follow identical structures: side A composed of two fast, hard, and powerful tracks in full d-beat style, side B from a single reggae track. Yet specular, because they could not be more different in concepts.

While "Suoni" was so extroverted, so introverted is "Morti"; as exuberant and rallying for revolt as the first was, so fatalistic and nihilistic is the second; as positive as the first was, the second is negative. The tracklists are twin and specular: track number 1, as is obvious, serves to introduce the discourse, and not by chance in both cases the place is reserved for the title track. But while Suoni Puri Dalla Libertà was dominated by bass and drums, in Lo Sguardo dei Morti it's the guitar that stands out, a guitar darker than ever; and thus, as Suoni Puri was airy and wild, Lo Sguardo is dark and claustrophobic. The same goes for Corri e Sopravvivi and I Miei Occhi: both are straightforward, powerful, and no-frills, but while the first encouraged the listener, the second is reflective; while the first built a bridge between song and listener, the second raises an insurmountable wall with lyrics as minimalist as they are peremptory ("My eyes see / all that you cannot see"). But it's with side B that the differences become abysmal: Italia Brucia and Volando Stanotte in fact share only the reggae base, but could not be more opposite. As sunny and energetic as Italia Brucia was, Volando Stanotte is nocturnal and understated; it is a long, hypnotic dub track that guides the listener into the soul of the writer, a journey so personal and at the same time alienating that it has no equal in the history of hardcore; in other words, a masterpiece.

A masterpiece that unfortunately will remain the epitaph of Stigmathe: as already mentioned, the following year they would already have disbanded, never to reunite, another rare case within Italian punk. For future memory, their almost complete discography (the two EPs + tracks released in various compilations, "Hardcore Vivo" is missing but it doesn't matter) was collected in 2012 in a single CD called "Fronte Di Nervi": the advice, needless to say, is to get it.