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Rating: What a terrible beast rock'n'roll is. You can call it whatever you want, rock, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, but it's always there. It sticks to you at fourteen and you can't shake it off anymore. Actually, you already had it on, or maybe inside, but you didn't even realize it; it was just waiting for the right moment to reveal itself, because in the end it always goes the same way.
Years go by, trends change, you grow up, never forgetting that the age on your ID card is really just a number, but it is always there. And even if you sometimes wonder if it's time to cut it off and "settle down," since at "X years old" you can't still be acting like a kid, you realize that thing, that gut feeling it gives, has become such a part of you that giving it up would be like giving up a limb ("Do you love your arm or your leg more?"). And then there are situations where it degenerates, where this rock'n'roll becomes bigger than you, that you don't notice it at fourteen, but you're born right into it, in medias res, so it becomes a family affair.
This is the case of Strana Officina, the very historic (and very unlucky) band of tricolored heavy metal, here self-celebrated with the massive box set "1979-1989. The History." An unmissable opportunity for every fan of Italian metal of the days gone by, those "prehistoric" eighties that saw the debut, often quickly followed by disappearance, of an endless galaxy of bands, some very good others less so, to relive the epic of the historic Livorno formation. A box set with four vinyls, faithfully reproducing the original EPs and LPs, accompanied by a fourth record presenting for the first time well-known hits often never having made it onto an official release. Listening to those records again today they almost seem tender, not in a derogatory sense, mind you, but for the genuineness and passion with which they were conceived. The labor of work, the hope for a better future, the fears of youth: rereading today the lyrics of Johnny Salani and the Cappanera brothers, children of the red working class, seem to be a compendium of the socio-political climate of lead (more metal) of those years.
The music? It draws heavily from the founding fathers, Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple. Production often on the brink of decency, the means were what they were and you really had to make do, but passion, enthusiasm made it so that you could turn a blind eye, and sometimes both, on a sound quality that, out of necessity, could not possibly compete with the mega-productions of those years in England and America.
"Strana Officina," released by Minotauro in 1984, includes four pieces that would not have been out of place on a great NWOBHM album from big names like Saxon. "Piccolo Uccello Bianco," "Viaggio in Inghilterra," a child of a trip that the band actually made to "perfida Albione," contain all the elements of that sound that would become a trademark: a warm voice, no eardrum-piercing screams, a full-bodied rhythm section proud of its blues origin, a sharp but not too sharp guitar, which juggles in a thousand solos, never self-serving. All the premises for growth are there. It is on these tracks that "Run to the Hills" of Strana Officina will find space, that "Autostrada dei Sogni" that even today is the highlight of their concerts. The desire to escape, the unwillingness to give in to a future that, you realize right away, is not what you want, the myth of the journey: feelings that may seem childish, but that do not leave you indifferent, even twenty-five years later. The rise and fall of stages across half the boot increases the harmony within the band and already in the second EP, "The Ritual," of 1987, you can hear different improvements: a more hard rock-oriented sound moves to a heavier one, as well as singing in decent English and slightly better production (forget about Iron Maiden's sound, let's be clear!). Perhaps due to lack of experience behind the console and in the studio, perhaps due to little material available, but in the end, here too, the mini-LP formula is proposed, with the usual two tracks per side. As already explained, there are some novelties regarding the sound of the group, which becomes more complex, with the exuberance of the debut occasionally juxtaposed by some keyboard inserts, giving the whole a sense of greater completeness. Here, too, anthem-like tracks such as "Metal Brigade" and "The Ritual" make yesterday's and today's metalheads "bang their heads," thanks to the exuberance of the legendary Bud Ancillotti: rarely heavy metal has had lyrics worth mentioning, but at least it must be recognized that those of Strana were genuine offspring of the historical and social context in which they were conceived.
Completely different story for "Unknown Soldier," perhaps the most beautiful track ever written by the band from Livorno: besides lyrics light years away from the adolescent rebellion of "Metal Brigade," it features a well-structured track, starting softly and exploding in the second part. It should be noted that with this record they return to the original formula of the band, therefore with only one guitar entrusted to Fabio Cappanera. Marcellino Masi had indeed left the band, and perhaps also because of this, they managed to achieve a better sound: managing a group of four elements in the room rather than five must have been simpler and less expensive. The final bang would come in 1989, with the much-awaited LP, "Rock & Roll Prisoners," which comes more than ten years after the band's creation, something unthinkable these days. Biker-style cover, "tough" faces (quotation marks are definitely mandatory), and a self-quoting T-shirt: seeing such a photo, it would be utterly impossible not to realize that it's the late eighties. The album, as one would expect, is a direct continuation of what had been carried out so far, and there are no substantial changes in the band's style. Except for some trips abroad, the fame of Livorno's band remains limited to our beloved Italy and there's frankly regret knowing that a band like this, had they just moved to England or Germany, would surely have had more chances. Oh well, that's how it went. For the occasion, they also revisit pieces from the old repertoire in Italian, and thus "Luna Nera," an eight-minute mini-suite from the time of the first EP, becomes "Black Moon," with an absolutely noteworthy result, just as much as the new version of "Piccolo Uccello Bianco," here turned into "Burning Wings." "King Troll," "Don't Cry," "Kiss of Death" only affirm the state of grace of a formation now launched and in full form, champions of a movement that, as mentioned before, certainly did not have large budgets but rather the desire to act and try, despite being well aware that success, understood as millions of copies sold, would never come and that to play and record one would have to face constant difficulties.
Forget about downloading CDs, back then if your trusted store didn't have what you were looking for, you had to order it or hope to find it at some fair, not to mention that record companies weren’t always equipped for thorough distribution across the territory. One was simply driven by something called passion. End of the box set, end of Strana Officina. The dream crashes in 1993 along with the car in which the Cappanera brothers were traveling: general shock, pain, after a celebratory tour, the curtain falls. It couldn't have ended worse: the album the Cappaneras were working on will remain in a drawer until 2011, continuing with Strana is out of the question. Ancillotti will found the Bud Tribe, an opportunity to once again cross paths with Marcellino Masi, another unfortunate talent, who had shared the stage with the band at the beginning. The spirit of the historic band lives on, but it is certainly not the same. For years there was regret for a story that should have gone differently, but until 2006, when it was decided to bring back the historic brand on tour, supported by Rolando on drums, Roberto's son, and Dario Cappanera, cousin, on guitar, a valid and genuine way to remember and pay tribute to what could have been and wasn't.
The box set ends with a beautiful record of rarities that offers the opportunity to finally hear the original incarnation of the band, when Bud Ancillotti was a fan like any other and Johnny Salani held the microphone firmly. You can hear tracks like the Saxon-style "Non sei normale," a historic piece of Italian heavy metal that appeared on the compilation "Heavy Metal Eruption" in Jurassic 1983, or "Non c'è più Mondo," which later ended up on the Cappanera 1991 record, and "Vai, vai," the embryo of what would later become "Don't Cry." It's gratifying to see how even tracks that, for one reason or another, never had the "honor" of being pressed on vinyl were nevertheless valid, which is why in recent years there's been a recovery effort: "Amore e Fuoco" was indeed re-recorded by the current formation and "Sole Cuore Mare" always finds space in the setlist. When will there be a proper release for the beautiful "Guerra Triste," the true revelation of this vinyl? It must finally be said that in 2010 it was finally decided to continue the story of Strana Officina with the release of a new album, but the tracks that shook Italian metal all remain right here.
"1979-1989. The History"
Strana Officina, 1984: Viaggio in Inghilterra/ Autostrada dei Sogni / Luna Nera/ Piccolo Uccello Bianco
The Ritual, 1987: The Ritual/ Gamblin Man/ Unknown Soldier/ Metal Brigade
Rock & Roll Prisoners, 1989: King Troll/ War Games/ Kiss of Death/ Black Moon/ Rock & Roll Prisoners/ Burning Wings/ Falling Star/ Don't Cry
Rare and Unreleased, 2008: Vai, vai/ Non c'è più Mondo/ Amore e Fuoco/ Viaggio in Inghilterra/ Non sei normale/ Difendi la Fede/ Guerra Triste/ Sole Mare Cuore
Strana Officina:
Bud Ancillotti, vocals on all official records
Johnny Salani, vocals on 1-4 of "Rare and Unreleased"
Fabio Cappanera, guitar
Marcellino Masi, second guitar on "Strana Officina"
Enzo Mascolo, bass
Roberto Cappanera, drums
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