Genre: Gothic / Rock / Metal

01 The London Fog
02 Like a Noise
03 Watching Me Fall
04 99 Cats
05 Dorian
06 Modern Slaves
07 I Will Kill Myself
08 Moscow
09 Wake Up In My Grave
10 Bloody Rain
11 The Wind that Moves the Flowers
12 Mountains of Madness

The Stompcrash is a goth rock band from Milano, Italy. Requiem Rosa is their first album and it's rather a good surprise! Requiem Rosa has a website dedicated to it. Who knows what one can find inside? It's about a lost melodic line one should bring new life to. Interesting initiative.

The tracks are sometimes consisting only on a female voice, other times only on the male one, and more rarely on both. Several styles, emotions are spread by voices: theatrical male voice (03), even more typically goth (01), or melancholic, more sincere than theatrical (05), Female voice mostly sounds really goth: sometimes plaintive, often with punk remnants (02, 04, 06). But it also appears as more modified (07) and distant (09) or sweeter, less punk (11). The last track features both male and female voices (12). Alternance between both is most of the time chosen.

Bass guitar is is sometimes very present, other times rather discrete. We can notice a stereo effect on the bass on the 1st track where the instrument is put ahead (01). Its sounds varies across tracks and may give a bass guitar with a rather strong 'personality' (06). Distorted guitars are sometimes discrete, sporadic (02, 03), distant (04), while other times they're more assertive, with a smoother metal sound (02, 03). Their sound might be discete, sweet and their even a bit plaintive, not far from The Sins Of Thy Beloved's (07). But, guitars may be more explicitely metal (09), and tracks such as the 10th can be qualified as metal. Synth are as important as the voices in this album to build catchy melodies. They play nocturnal melodies (04), are dark (09), sad (07), melancholic (11). They often play the main melody (f.i. 04, 05). Dark atmosphere are invoked thanks to a delightful organ sound (01, 03) and /or dark synthetic sounds (02, 03).

Drums adorn melody with some fineries (03), but most of the time remain really an adequate accompaniment. We however notice how necessary and efficient they are to structurate a whole ambient magma on the 7th track. We note the 6th song has a lil' raw, indus touch thanks to percussion and their metallic noises, unusual for the genre. But, other experiments with noises are present, although rather discrete. Indus ambient noises (04, 09), weird high-pitched and white-noisy sounds (10). These original electronic, experimental noises sound unusual for the genre, ti therefore brings something more.

All these elements are combined into a progressive orientation. Typically, echoed guitars appear, then synths etc., other layers, till finally, the ensemble of all instruments cumulated gets its maximum intensity, before calming down again, punctuated by calmer, emptier interludes (06)... And it goes up and down, yet with a strict control of loudness, of relative intensities of these instruments. These small interludes are interesting for they usually allow an instrument to illustrate itself, for instance bass or drums. But, this band creates catchy tunes – usually melancholic exceptionnally a rather fantastic, funny atmosphere (10) – mostly through voices (01) or synths (05), the core of the ensemble.

The Stompcrash serve us short but quite efficient tracks. Music is well aranged, so that it doesn't need many fineries, many sounds, many melodic layers. It's progressive but doesn't get lost into an inconsiderate superimposition of melodies. It stays in a strict aesthetic, rather simple, but efficiently expressive. There's a good balance between all instruments: usually no one dominates others completely. There is no hesitation of variating the loudness of some instruments to reach an appropriate balance, so that they alternate well in building the main melodic lines. Subtility dwells. Between tracks the transitions are very natural: the atmospheres create a kind of evolution on a continuum that sounds really natural.

Simplicity and sincerity of expression prevail on complexity and technical demonstration. The same goes for the quality of arrangements, combinations of sounds and subtle alternance between instruments that are the most positive point of this band. Everything is here to create a nocturnal melancholic urban atmosphere... You may recognize some influences across tracks, but not in an annoying way at all. Some may say this music is mainstream. It however has its own personality. Thus, it's suitable for goth rock fans, of course, but it's also accessible for other listeners. Make up your mind on The Stompcrash's myspace.