L'Impero Delle Ombre - I compagni di Baal (2011)^{Release ID: 20672}

L'Impero Delle Ombre (The Empire of the Shadows) were formed in Puglia in 1995 and have been based around brothers Giovanni Cardellino (vocals) and Andrea Cardellino (guitar) since their inception. Hardly a prolific band, their debut album wasn't released until 2004 and this, their second (and currently final) album was released after another 7 year wait. Fortunately it's almost good enough to be worth it. This is an album of traditional doom metal with a real 1970s vibe and some good, old-fashioned, Italian quirkiness thrown in for good measure that anyone familiar with Paul Chain's work will immediately recognize. The brilliant cover art suggests a 70s horror film, as does the scratchy intro track, opening the album with the impression of entering an old-fashioned cinema, all over-stuffed seats and velvet curtains across the screen.
The riffs are heavily influenced by eighties NWOBHM, the aforementioned Mr. Paul Chain and seventies hard rock, particularly Deep Purple, at several points sounding like a live jam during Highway Star, as on Divoratori della Notte. There's plenty of variation, to the point of progginess, particularly in the deployment of a veritable arsenal of keyboards from Oleg Smirnoff who's Hammond organ and Moog flourishes are awesome - seriously, check out the end of L'Oscura Persecuzione! The songs are quite catchy and are certainly memorable enough for you to suddenly find yourself humming the melodies long after the album has ended. It's almost as if this album has tried to capture my entire experience as a rock and metal fan from the seventies to the present in a single album. In fact I would mark this higher if not for Cosmochronos, which I feel doesn't flow right and I could have done without the bonus track cover of Snowblind.
All in all a real hidden gem of Italian progressive doom that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.