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REVIEWS
Here you can find links to some
reviews of our first miniCD "PROMO
2001"
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TOMBSTONE
(click here to read
original review)
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A demo with four songs from an Italian band
playing extreme music influenced from both
extreme black metal bands and death metal bands.
Their music is closer to old school and raw black
metal than death metal but some elements are
there nevertheless. In their sound you can find
influences from Darkthrone among others while
their black metal is truly fast. Now comes the
matter of quality. Not bad but not very good
either. Certainly a band with some talent but
they still have a lot to learn. One of them is to
learn to write better songs since especially the
arrangements are not of the required quality. The
production could use some improvement but this is
understandable since it is a self financed demo.
You can find more info about this Italian band by
visiting their official web site at www.vulvacroma.com
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VAMPIRE MAGAZINE
(click here to read
original review)
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Reviewed by Manuel on
January 28, 2003.
VULVACROMA is yet another band who consists out
of members with abbreviations. Original members
MT and VS now lead the way for their atheistic
black-metal as YSM left the band in '00 just
after the recordings of the first rehearsal tape.
Being inspired since the beginning by Norwegian
acts such as SATYRICON, DARKTHRONE and MAYHEM,
VULVACROMA takes their level of intensity as high
as these legends used to do. Fast aggressive
black-metal awaits! It's a bloody shame that
their worldwide debut only lasts for 14-something
minutes. This music should've last half an hour
at least in my opinion, due to the great
black-metal on "Promo 2001".
Because of YSM' retirement and MT and VS didn't
want a replacement for the drums, they availed
themselves a drum-computer. The influence of the
electronics becomes clear from the start as it
produces a pretty fake sound, but thanks to the
gadget VULVACROMA delivers very fast furious
black-metal you like it; raw sound, aggressive
vocals and very distorted guitars. In all three
the songs the drums enter at full speed after
some mid-tempo riffs. Great examples are
'Dreamlike Crosses Break' and 'Hopeless' where
this is being used. The songs are pretty original
thanks to the non-constant pounding, but with
some breaks between them. Only the vocals can be
really referred to SATYRICON and the other
mentioned bands above. The music tends to be more
of MARDUK-calibre thanks to the great speed.
Although "Promo 2001" only has three
tracks in the media, the disk I received has a
fourth track on it. Eager to hear what VULVACROMA
has more to offer, the curiousness quickly turns
into a pile of shit! One minute ten of a drunken
piano with a serious hangover from the day
before. VULVACROMA is at the moment working on
new material for their second CD. They also want
to bring their music on stage so if there's a
suited drummer in North Italy available, mail
them!
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Vulvacroma's
newest release, TYT, is again topnotch raw
blackmetal! Besides two covers, which I will
discuss later on, there are a couple of own
inventions on the disc. The titletrack TYT, I
hate trees, Don't trust Joe: one by one great
songs! The vocals are somewhat distorted, yet
very hollow and distinguishable. Whilst the
guitars and (also distorted) bass also have this
typical greasy sound, the riffs are simple but
touching - a fundamental of old school
blackmetal. Even though Vulvacroma was forced to
work with a drumcomputer now, it is hardly
noticeable! The patterns are very well programmed
and the drumsound is excellent, so it doesn't
bother at all. Then we get to the covers: Agent
Orange (Sodom) and Freezing Moon (Mayhem). Both
are played pretty tight, the only huge difference
with the original is the sound of the vocals and
guitar... The solo is kind of fucked up though.
All in all, the covers are quite okay! After
those, we get a well-composed piano-outro.
Another extra included: a video of TYT! It's
straight in your face and shows no mercy: footage
of war, death, decay, pain, wasted nature,...
Nice release, stuffed with cold and grim
blackmetal!
review
written by: Göran
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Vintage
material. A kind of archive pre-Darkthrone,
pre-Hades Almighty, pre-Mayhem document… as
a matter of fact, in league with the early
Norwegian black metal scene. Vulvacroma is a two
minds project coming from Italy and surprisingly,
their second demo recording (they already
recorded a first promo some three years ago)
doesn’t sound bad to my ears. The rhythm is
generally (and unfortunately for my opinion)
driven by the blistering speed of drums, the
guitar parts being pasted on top. The demo’s
strong song («Don’t Trust Joe») include
very nice bridges and pace changes. The three
songs come with two useless covers (Sodom’s
«Agent Orange», the worst one and Mayhem’s
«Freezing Moon», not really essential). All in
all, «Tyt» is a good demo for all the nostalgic
of archaic black metal recordings.
Patricia
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"Vulvacroma
songs consist in simply but powerful guitar
riffs, distorted bass, ultrafast drums and
glacial screams [...]". Kann man so
eigentlich stehen lassen, allerdings würde ich
einen Grossteil davon in ein etwas weniger
positoves Licht rücken. Man ist offensichtlich
dem Irrtum aufgesessen, dass simpelste, zigfach
aneinandergereihte Gitarrenriffs automatisch eine
gute Black Metal Scheibe garantieren. Dass dem
aber definitiv nicht so ist, beweist "Promo
2001" auf sehr anschauliche Art und Weise.
Das Material dümpelt trotz äusserst hohem Tempo
nur so vor sich hin, und schafft es weder,
irgendwelche Gefühle, welcher Art auch immer,
aufkommen zu lassen, noch irgendwelche
Körperpartien des Zuhörers zur stimmungsvollen
Bewegung zu animieren. Der Rest ist eigentlich
nebensächlich, sollte aber doch erwähnt werden.
Für eine Black Metal Produktion ist der Bass
extrem weit in den Vordergrund gemischt.
Eigentlich gefällt mir das, aber hier surrt und
vibriert es fast schon zu sehr aus den Boxen. Da
der Drummer die Band noch vor den Aufnahmen zu
diesem Demo verlassen hat, hat man sich ausserdem
eines Drumcomputers bedienen müssen. Und das
hört man auch extrem, vor allem in den schnellen
Parts (die etwa 90% der 3 Songs ausmachen) fällt
das sehr auf. Wäre bei besserem Material aber
wohl nicht so schlimm, im grossen und ganzen
klingt die Produktion nämlich ein wenig nach
Limbonic Arts "Ad Noctum", was mir
eigentlich recht gut gefällt. Sehr nach Limbonic
Art erinnert auch der ordentliche Kreischgesang,
der aber auch nicht über die wirklich grosse
kompositorische Schwäche der zwei Italiener
hinweghelfen kann. Ans Herz kann ich dieses
Scheibchen also leider niemandem legen. Wer es
aber trotzdem haben möchte, kann das Demo für 5
Euro (inkl. Versand) über die Bandhomepage
bestellen.
Punkte: 3/10
(mf_Greg / 31.03.2003)
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