This is the first album for the German band COUP DE GRÂCE, showing a mixture of Gothic Rock, metal riffing, and neoclassic/neofolk influences, with the use of bagpipe and violin. The first song "Until the End" is more metal oriented, with somethings that reminds me of TIAMAT’s "Clouds", involving and rhythmical. Both the second track "Untitled", with a neofolk opening with violin (à la ALGIZ) and "When You Are Gone", with acoustic guitar intertwining with bagpipe, start softer to explode with harder metal electric guitars and a rocker attitude, with sometimes growling voice. The chorus of "When You Are Gone" is really good, such as the melodies of "Running Away", probably, in my opinion, the best chorus in all the album. "Deathbed" is like a Gothic Metal song, orchestrated and powerful, but it’s not "doom" because of a jumping and shaking rhythmic section. What is, I think, the lack of this album is the rough sound of the violin, not giving the right sweetness and atmosphere to songs, and above all the unripe use of vocals: English pronunciation is too "deutsch" and, even if probably this is the singer’s strongest feature, the voice is nearly always whining, and it could be annoying at last. It’s a pity because the singer Martin Krauß has a good timbre and could surely do better in the future.
So, a good album showing an interesting new band, but they have to dedicate more time to smooth some roughness, both in sounds and composition.

New work for the Italian band ARGINE, the third full length for a band that released a year ago the anthology "Rifrazioni" to commemorate ten years of activity. A new album that is a turning-point, forgetting the limits of an apocalyptic-folk scene that is too tight for Argine, looking back at the post-punk and new wave origins and at the same time looking ahead, to new form of alternative rock. A very good work, marked by the usual melodic taste the band showed in former albums, the great care of arrangements, even if this time the songs are simpler, with a more direct attitude and a punk anger and energy. The tracklist includes new songs and other going back to the first period of the band, to the first demo "I Colori del Silenzio", dated 1996. So "I Nostri Occhi" and "Spina Nel Fianco", historical songs, are now revisited emphasizing the new wave spirit with filtered voices and a darker feeling. "Lamento Funebre" is the older version of the first album’s titletrack "Mundana Humana Instrumentalis", with lyrics by P.B. Shelley, now more dark-rock oriented. In all the album Corrado Videtta’s voice shows a melodic attitude unexplored in previous works, with something that in "Le Luci di Hessdalen" and in "Punti Invisibili" reminds me of CSI’s frontman Giovanni Lindo Ferretti. Acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums and percussions, enriched by the great violin lines of Edo Notarloberti (playing as guest on most of dark/folk/neoclassic/rock Neapolitan bands’ albums) and the sweet voice of Cecilia Videtta, alternating the classical soprano tone and a softer and "pop" attitude, make "Radjodramma", "Lucente Anima" and "In Silenzio" songs on the edge between an emotional and thoughtful music (lyrics are always one of the strongest features of the band) and a commercial tendency. "Girotondo" is a song that makes me suffer, for it’s a sweeping and rhythmical punk song, very melodic and with a great commercial potential but it’s totally destroyed by a terrible mixing (while the other songs aren’t bad mixed): you’ll hear only a padded bass overwhelming drums and voices, and above the chorus female voice is totally impossible to understand. This song is great and deserves much more. To conclude, a new album that is new born: towards the recovery of its past, the band has found its path, mixing new-wave, post-punk, alternative rock, poetic feelings and commercial attitude and it’s now ready to exit the niche to meet a greater public.

NICK GREY AND THE RANDOM ORCHESTRA is a total surprise for me. Every listening adds something to a vision of higher Art, where everything has its role in creating a refined but passionate fusion of poetry and music. Different influences and a conflicting use of classic instruments and electric guitars and drums show a complete personal capacity of making new what is ancient and at the same time to make ancient what is new. Consider a sweet and sad piano (a really sad piano, giving you the sense that everything’s lost), a soft electronic drum, a distorted guitar wringing your heart, and a deep voice whispering or singing with an emotional strength that reminds me of AND ALSO THE TREES’ singer Simon Huw Jones. Add a trumpet and a clarinet giving particular and unexpected influences, a violin and congas and you’ll get this fusion of neoclassic music, avant-garde, electronic beats, Debussy, Current 93 (considering their wonderful "Soft Black Star") and Dead Can Dance (in particular for some parts involving ethnic drums).
"The Zealot", just to mention one of the songs, is simply beautiful, a sort of a lullaby in a dusty empty room. "Look Like Moses" alternates a trip hop soft atmosphere, with a nostalgic kletzmer fleeling clarinet, a sort of Yiddish vocal melody (I don’t know why but I feel strongly so... ), the powerful voice of the tenor Vasile Moldoveanu, a trumpet giving the sense of a world fading away. "November Fadeline" is a must for people loving ASHRAM, UNTO ASHES. "Hiding in Seaweed" shows the fascinating voice of Jasmine Pinkerton on a congas rhythm, a medieval lament in a Moroccan harem. "Parachute drops" with a Hammond, glockenspiel notes falling like drops, gives the feeling of a wait, of something growing that will happen.
I think this is not an easy listening album, not Californian beach party. It’s full of cultural and poetic suggestions, every time shows a different side you’ve not noticed. But it’s not an esoteric piece of art: you’ll love it more and more because it’s full of sweet, heart-touching melodies, it will entrap you and you’ll listen three times without stopping.

SENSITIVE RECORDS is a new label with a real open-minded attitude: from rock to avant-garde, to classical music. This sampler shows 14 tracks taken from four forthcoming albums, whose red line is the high quality of music and the capacity of mixing different styles in a charming way.
About NICK GREY & THE RANDOM ORCHESTRA, the ensemble is an international music collective leaded by the Rumanian artist Nick Grey. In these tracks, taken from "Regal Daylight" album, they continuously combine different influences, using soft drum machine, distorted guitars and classical instruments. I'm totally shocked by the first track "thievesamongthorns": starting with a classical intro, with the collaboration of the famous tenor Vasile Moldoveanu, soon shows a soft, sweet and melancholic atmosphere, with a wonderful clarinet leading to a land of memories. "Intruders" reveals a more strong attitude, alternating a powerful electric guitar with piano and violin, while "Parachutes Drops" is a darker song, gloomy with its strings and glockenspiel-like carillon.
EMPI (L’Eglise du Mouvement Péristaltique Inversé – The Church of Reversed Peristaltic Movement) is another project which involves Nick Grey, a French speaking ensemble now releasing the second album, a totally mad and distorted mix of romantic landscapes and visions of pain. While listening to their "V" I’m submerged by an atmosphere a la Debussy, with a moving and desperate duo piano-violin. "Pression", instead, with a pulsing beat and a repetitive clarinet is like being closed in an asylum, with people whispering everywhere, knocking at the walls and far machinery noise. "Haiku" is a long walk between moist walls and "Pédagogie du tremblement" is your final arrival to Hell, a nightmare on Earth. PINKERTON & GREY is a collaboration between the Nick Grey and the Armenian pianist and soprano Jasmine Pinkerton. The tracks, taken from forthcoming album "Dress Rehearsal" show melodic and really listenable compositions with piano and voice. "Wheelchair lovesong" is a sad song with some Pink Floyd’s "The Wall" echoes, while the wonderful "Song 6" brings you to a sunny and drowsy Spring afternoon, in the last decades of ?800, lay down on the grass reading Verlaine’s verses. "Israël" starts softly, bringing me to memory the best songs of Ashram, to increase in a crescendo that involves the listener in a vortex of emotions and passion.
At last, unusual for CHAIN DLK’s readers, are two tracks from VASILE MOLDOVEANU’s "Arias": this is the reissue of an opera arias album by the great Rumanian tenor. Surely I cannot review the music: the two tracks in the sampler are the wonderful Puccini’s "E lucevan le stelle" and Bizet’s "Agnus Dei" and they need no additional words by me. What I can say is that Moldoveanu is a really great interpreter, with a deep and powerful voice, revealing that classical music has not yet lost its charm and that you can find it only in real artists, far from TV-business "Three Tenors" or "Pavarotti and Friends".
It was really a long time I hadn’t listened to a so touching compilation. Every artist is a must and I’ll wait anxiously the release of their albums.