Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll!
Sturm, Drang and Romanticism!

But hey, just among you and me: If you listen closer you’ll realize that’s actually… at least almost… kind of the same. Ponte Del Diavolo just cipher the classic trinity in a way that really suits their second full album’s release date on Friday the 13th.

And if you’ve been lucky enough to see the Italians live on stage you don’t need any further explanation why a release on the birthday of Black Sabbath’s Black Sabbath is a perfect fit anyway, because you’ve witnessed that their charismatic singer Erba del Diavolo isn’t just an ordinary Rock performer. [Read in booming accusatory Spanish inquisitor voice:] She’s a witch!

Naturally, the religious zealot in me must assume that the whole existence of this band only serves to carry her spells about roses and thorns, blood and poison, potions and exstasy, passion and death. And it surely would be easy to ignore the “female-fronted” is not a genre rule and perceive this album mainly through her presence. This already opens the door to a lot of references, the most obvious being Messa, whose singer Sara not only shares a love for melodic, sometimes almost operatic Doom vocal lines and dramatic belts, but of course also the strong Italian accent. Erba even sings several songs and passages in her mother tongue, which seem to be very deliberately chosen, because they utilize and amplify the inherent Italian speech melody in a way that makes it very hard to imagine the performance in any other language.

But while it’s wide open to Doom influences Ponte Del Diavolo’s music focusses much more on Post-Punk and Black Metal, which is also reflected in the more aggressive vocals, even though Erba doesn’t go into full screech mode, but saves her harshest, sharpest tone effectively for select lines. Ultimately, most possible comparisons just point to specific commonalities in tone and overall feeling, a similarly wide range or just the sheer energy of the band, which brings to mind artists as different as healthyliving, Kohti Tuhoa, (old) Gold, Dool, Maggot Heart or even Brutus, while the one group checking most boxes for me might be Shaam Larain from Sweden, who I actually could confuse with Ponte Del Diavolo at least in some of their songs.

Yet after three EPs and one stunning debut album this group has already established a distinct identity that’s so strong that they hardly need to look for inspiration outside of their staked out framework. It’s safe to say that Ponte Del Diavolo must still be pretty pleased with how Fire Blades From The Tomb turned out in 2024, because if you put it side to side to De Venom Natura, both albums basically use the same blueprint down to a remarkable amount of specific details:

Seven tracks with an average length of around five to six minutes. A very similar ratio of English and Italian lyrics. One duet with a male Heavy Metal voice, this time from actual Black Metal musician Gionata Potenti. Brilliantly incorporated guest musicians on theremin, synths and clarinet (plus now also Potenti on acoustic guitar and Ottone Pesante’s Francesco Bucci on trombone). And last but not least the album ending with a darker and heavier cover version of a Gothic classic. Last time it was Nick Cave’s “Weeping Song”, now we get “In The Flat Field” by Bauhaus, presented in a murderously infectious frenzy.

These kinds of similarities clearly aren’t a sign of waning creativity, but rather just set up some lovely little traditions in the way Metallica did with the positioning of title track and the obligatory instrumental epic on their run from Ride The Lightning to …And Justice For All. Now that’s a reference drop you didn’t expect, right? And while the last mentioned album is infamously accused of its lack of bass (by morons who don’t get the point of Cliff Burton missing and even create improved for the worse with bass versions, but let’s not dive further into that tiring discussion here…) Ponte Del Diavolo have bass in spades.

Despite the spotlight on singer Erba there’s one subtle but super effective and formative trick which shapes the band’s sound like no other: Instead of having two guitarists and one bass player, they turned that constellation around, which means that their low end is both very powerful and varied. With juxtaposed clean and distorted bass tones and harmonies within on their own rather simplistic New Wave lines Ponte Del Diavolo unlock an unexpected spectrum of depth, drive and detail there.

But even with the combination of a mesmerizing vocalist and that special line-up superpower for the low frequencies a great album still needs the according level of songwriting. And boy, De Venom Natura is stacked with so many great ideas and earworms that I end up with a new favorite song after each listen.

Is it the raging and blasting opener “Every Tongue Has Its Thorns”? Is it the Bauhaus cover or “Spirit, Blood, Poison, Fermenti” with it’s brilliant dark brass licks? Or is it the longest and most doomish piece “Delta-9 (161)” which completely led me on a false trail before I actually thought about the title and looked into the lyrics. (At first I imagined it could be about obsessing over and cursing a specific air flight. Instead this is simply the “drugs part” of the record, Ponte Del Diavolo’s “Dopesmoker” so to speak. For sure quite an interesting variation of Stoner Rock.) Or maybe it’s “Il Veleno Della Natura” with its surprising mix of Muse, Prog and Post Black Metal vibes?

I’ll probably never decide. But I gladly take this fantastic album as my personal birthday present! Only my cousin, who - and that’s not made up - has the remarkable ability to tell you the exact weekday of any given date on the spot could tell you that I was only born on the right date, February the 13th, but not actually on a Friday. But since you just got an awesome recommendation from me, I’m sure you won’t tell anyone if you catch me lying about that occasionally, agreed?