(written by Islander)
Imagine you’re staring at the face of a clock instead of this page, a clock with a sweep hand that steadily ticks away the seconds. Then imagine the clock goes haywire, the second hand and the other hands spinning instead of ticking or crawling, and then all of them suddenly spinning in the opposite direction.
That’s one way to prepare you for the Sulphuria song “La Danza Del Satiro” we’re about to present. It spins in very different directions from the kind of music we usually feature here, strange directions that become strangely seductive, a twist on black metal that exotically warps it, an alchemy that justifies a “for fans of” reference which includes Goblin and Mercyful Fate as well as Beherit and Gorgoroth (among others).
The song is from the band’s debut album L’Odore Del Sangue, which will be released by a pair of labels on October 13th. It’s possible to identify the track’s musical ingredients, but much more difficult to describe how Sulphuria use them, or the combined effect they will have on unsuspecting minds.
Those ingredients include menacing riffing that sounds like a belt-sander working on gnarled wood, but also bright and bouncing vintage keys with a shimmering resonance. They include vibrant drums that rock steady and also hammer like fast, well-fueled pistons, and a thick bass that murmurs, moans, and rumbles. They further include a fluid solo guitar with a warm and piercing tone and another that’s acoustic, as well as a voice that’s part gasp, part snarl, and wholly vampiric.
Sulphuria work all these contrasting and complementary ingredients together to create a diabolical experience, a nightside journey into a strange and sinister realm. Those pinging keys are enticing and head-hooking but also begin to sound demented. The gritty riffing grinds but also dismally drags and viciously slithers. The music ecstatically swirls, sounds feverish and frightening, becomes gentle and elegant (but still eerie thanks to the shimmer of the synth), and jubilantly dances. The drum tempos and patterns are in constant flux, but also constantly get muscles moving.
It sounds like black magic, like sorcery, like an experiment with ’70s progressive dark rock film soundtracks and black metal, one that works.
“La Danza Del Satiro” (which translates to “The Dance of the Satyr”) is presented through a lyric video, though you’ll have to be well-versed in Italian to comprehend it.
We should add some background information about Sulphuria, because they’re not a household name. In fact, 1998 was the date of their last demo release, with no sign of life in the nearly three decades since then, so you’d be forgiven if you had never heard the name before today.
The band was formed in 1991 by guitarist Adram, initially choosing the name Sulphur and then Sulphuria, both of them inspired (we are told) “by the sulphurous water springs near Acquasanta Terme (AP), a mountain place full of charm near the national park of the Sibillini mountains and the national park of the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga.”
With other band members in harness, Sulphuria released four demos, then vanished, and now reappear as a duo of Adram (vocals, synth) and Mike The Unholy (Scala Mercalli and Sleazer) performing guitars, bass, drums. The music they’re now making is quite different from those early black metal demos.
L’Odore Del Sangue will be released by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Pluton’s Rising Productions (Poland) in a jewel-box CD edition with an 8-page booklet (limited to 500 copies), as well as digitally. They recommend it or fans of Goblin, Mercyful Fate, Beherit, Gorgoroth, Dissection, Immortal, and Emperor.
Find pre-order info via the links below, and also find a stream of the album’s first single, “Mille Volti Di Te“, which is free to download at Bandcamp.
PRE-ORDER:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat404-sulphuria-lodore-del-sangue-2025
https://plutonsrisingprod.wixsite.com/plutonsrising
SULPHURIA:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572430794388
http://www.instagram.com/sulphuria.blackmetal90s