Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips
Tracklist

A1 - Temple Room
A2 - The Psychic
A3 - Red Dawn
A4 - Widow Of The Web
B1 - Black Candles
B2 - Night Stalking
B3 - Someone Chasing Someone Through A House
B4 - Everything Is Going To Be Okay

5...according to our Brian on Tue 22 Feb, 2011.

Bloody hell! This sounds utterly amazing! Within minutes all I can think of is the finest elements of Goblin & Zombi rolled into an evocative driving, behemoth of an album! You know, the real striding prog-horror deal. I can take or leave a lot of this stuff to be honest - taken out of the context of a quality 70's/80's shocker, this derivative style of mock-incidental music can often err on the side of simply kitsch, but this? The clarity of production and the powerfully brooding low-end have me creaming myself! This is deep, innovative retro-progressive music with a relentless stalker mentality, wearing a full-on dirty groovesuit. Can you stalk someone in a suit? Patrick Bateman did I'm sure. I don't just want to sit here raving about the way this genre-flaying record makes me feel this crisp Autumn morn. It's one of the finest examples I've heard of that classic post-Italo sound, constructed by a fully-fledged genius in waiting. The sinister, dystopian synths on Prophecy Of The Black Widow are to die for on here, it is a truly hypnotic, all-consuming journey that transcends plagiarism somehow, due to its beautifully crafted nature. AOTW for me!

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The one UMBERTO performance we had the rad fortune to bear witness to involved at least a dozen dudes, dads, and ladies all on stage wearing sunglasses at night and shredding keyboards / keytars bathed in a sea of fog machinery and strobe lights and extraterrestrially-costumed interpretive dancers. Shit was BEYOND. Umberto mastermind MATT HILL allegedly went to legit music school back in the day and used to play bass for EXPO 70 (Justin/Expo released the debut Umberto tape/CDR, From The Grave, on his Sonic Meditations label) before splintering into his current electro-satanic Goblin worship guise and we for one can t get enough. Prophecy Of The Black Widow is his sophomore LP and though the badass evil Italo goth-synth horror-score blueprint of Grave remains, the main variation is subtle vibe-shift from 70s Argento/Carpenter-isms into more early/mid- 80s new wave creep-scapes. There s still plenty of eerie nightmare keyboard riffs and vintage witch-disco breakouts but the synths squelch with more of a neon retrofuturist bent and there s even one brazenly feelgood soaring-into-the-sunset closing credits anthem (the literally-titled Everything Is Going To Be Okay ). Whatever prophecy Prophecy is foretelling, we re on board. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with sick fake-3D lettering and art by SETH JOHNSON. NNF. Edition of 485.

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