The Stompcrash - Love From Hell (2014) - Review

Details

Published on Thursday, 22 May 2014 19:44

Band: The Stompcrash
Album title: Love From Hell
Release date: 20 April 2014
Label: Cold Insanity Music/Swiss Dark Nights

Tracklist:
01. Love From Hell   
02. Jack   
03. Duality (feat. Andrew Birch)   
04. The Dancing Ants   
05. The Last Goodbye (feat. Nino Sable)
06. Tonight   
07. Bloodnever   
08. Follow You
09. On The Seventh Floor   
10. Hunger   
11. The Pretender

It seems that something special is in the Italian air for last couple of years, many of great albums in the goth field came out from that country and also Milan based quartet which was formed back in 2002, The Stompcrash, throws their very good third full lenght. If the band already gained quite a lot of approval in the goth scene with their first two albums, Requiem Rosa (2007) and Directions (2012), now the band fronted by charismatic romantic gothster Chris takes everything one level higher. Love From Hell is The Stompcrash's trademark album by all means, but this time with even more elaborated song structures and very good, clean production. The romantic note is still present all over the record, but thrown with kind of more "into your face" attitude. Maybe is that the reason for choosing the title like Love From Hell.

All of eleven songs on this album more or less shine because of the incredible accessible flow. Many typical goth rock and wave elements converge into mystical, somehow melancholic pop melodies, thus creating very dense and at the moments extremely catchy sound. Not to mention how captivating are many of the refrains. Superficially everything seems to be very simplistic, but if you absorb yourself into details, there are many hidden things that are creating such a dense atmospheric sound. Nicely and with ease played guitar riffs, drums and bass line, often gave way to many classical elements and very "gothish" keyboards. Not to mention Chris's stunning, bewitching, smooth, with a bit of Mediterranean accent, and I believe for the female part of the listeners very sexy voice, you can't argue with that. The very first example is already the album titled opener, and the same feeling is carried on the next two songs. I must expose the third one, "Duality", where as a guest vocalist we can hear Andrew Birch from The Last Cry. Everything is then interupted by a bit out of albums pace, the only one sangt with female vocals, by bands keyboard player Dani, "The Dancing Ants". In this one The Stompcrash couldn't get out of their skin and added a lot of theatrical, I can say even avantgardish elements. Not my favorite one, but on the other hand it for sure adds a lot to the overall dynamics.

The very next one "The Last Goodbye" is the most upbeat song and surprise surprise, who's the guest in here... Nino Sable from Aeon Sable. Nino and Chris made one hell of a vocal duet here, but even from the instrumental side, this rather danceable, 80's smelling  pop/goth rock/new wave tune is absolutelly gorgeous, similar vibe is also present in another masterpiece "Bloodnever". If you are into more melacholic vibes than the slow dark delight "On The Seventh Floor" and "Tonight" are the ones for you. Carried by a soft and gentle violin sound, "Tonight", can make your eyes wet. Also the electronic elements used, for example, on "Follow You" are very welcome..., but please Chris, let me explain this, why I hear you singing in the refrain "I want to fuck you", while in the lyrics sheet is written "I want to follow you", hmm???

Ok, Love From Hell is a very well done album, it's one of those smooth and easy to grasp releases that can be played on many occasions. The Stompcrash proved once again that they are one of those bands that must be taken under strong consideration by each and every lover of dark melancholic goth rock music. Even the artwork is just the right one, dark, erotic and bloodstained, you can't go wrong by using a half striped woman with human heart in her hand, can't you?

Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 8/10

• < Prev
• Next >