Madre del Vizio – “Un Mondo Dove…” review
…la notte e stata consumata, la notte d’un passo va
(“Bestie Metalliche”)
Madre del Vizio, the cult and the first in Germany deathrock band is considered by many journalists to be attractive and successful because of their “American” sound. But that is not the entire truth. The band’s uniqueness is that they sound as if they invented deathrock independently, without that “Christian Death” basis (though some relations, of course, take their places). Deathrock of Madre del Vizio has very similar sound to the classical one, but glam rock influence doesn’t play such an important role, and hard rock backgrounds are more on the surface.
“Un Mondo Dove…” (“A World Where…”) is the compilation of the original Madre del Vizio best of (1990-1997), and it can exactly be called the best and the most comprehensive representative of this vast first chapter of the great band’s activity.
The compilation’s stuff has plenty of different shades, which could be interesting to be noticed for a real deathrock fan as well as for any individual rock lover. The deathrock side is accented very clearly in most of the songs, the most typical representatives of which are probably such songs as “Madre” and “Visione 1”. Some songs have more horror and heavy sides, and the influence of old heavy bands which were flirting with darkness and Satanism goes on the very surface in them. This aspect is better reflected in obscure, tense and infernal songs ”Un Mondo Dove…”, contrasting “Tenebre” and especially “Entra Nel Mondo”. But on the other hand, the release also contains imponderable sounded hits, which could be priceless for any decent “goth” DJ, such as the most covered band’s song “Magico” and the catchiest “Stanza”, which makes a listener repeat “un sogno, sogno, sogno” with the vocalist Fulvio Tori and keep it in memory long after the listening. But there’re the 100% hits of other kinds as well, which are not less catchy. Of course, it’s foremost the first band’s hit, the penetrating “Amore, Fede, Speranza”, which can exactly take its place among the greatest deathrock hymns, but it’s also horrorish “Bestie Metalliche” with its catchy “oh bestie…” and the sensitive “Sudore and Sangue” with unexpectedly lyrical guitar sound and female vocals addition.
All the lyrics of the presented songs, except “Reprise” are written in Italian, and the lyrical aspect is the band’s very single and very personal one. Actually, most of the lyrics are the subliminal obscure poetic images, reflecting the themes of death, darkness and so on, not on their primitive levels, but mostly metaphorically (as it could be well seen in the headline track “Un Mondo Dove…”, which talks about “a world where all humans are vampires”). Some lyrics appeal to a listener in other ways (for example, “Amore, Fede, Speranza” in its lyrical and performance contrasts).
The music of Madre del Vizio is the music of death, but it descries all the death sides. The band’s songs are not the reflection of a concrete moment, but they live their lives from birth to death, and growing up while they last.
This compilation is the one of “must have” for any deathrock lover, though, as it was said, the band’s style is quite individual to be put in any strict borders and to be attractive for deathrockers only.
Pall “Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
