PONTE DEL DIAVOLO

Yet another great band from Italy, a country that has experienced an extraordinary renaissance over the last decade, PONTE DEL DIAVOLO are a glorious, confounding enigma. Ostensibly a black metal band, with an occasional penchant for slowing things down to a doom-laden crawl, they released their debut album "Fire Blades from the Tomb" in 2024 and immediately established themselves as fascinating mavericks. Operating at a hazy midpoint between extreme, underground metal and ragged, gothic post-punk, they are impressively resistant to pursuing the obvious. "De Venom Natura" builds on the cross-pollinated fervor of its predecessor, taking a more measured and amorphous approach. Vocalist Erba del Diavolo remains the band's secret weapon, with a voice that skips effortlessly between feral roar, angelic melody and urgent, CRASS-like spoken word. Combined with songs that revel in their subversive grimness, PONTE DEL DIAVOLO have audibly reached the next level of immaculate obscurity.

These songs explore dark themes, which will surprise no one, but the central thrust of "De Venom Natura" is a disarming mixture of harrowing intensity and skillful lightness of touch. "Every Tongue Has Its Thorns" opens the ritual with blistering, black metal intent, before veering away from the traditional towards something far less easily defined. Likewise, "Lunga vita alla necrosi" begins as a grubby-fingered, post-punk tirade, but exhibits a strong, gritty core of straight-ahead alt-rock. Even more startling, "Spirit, Blood, Poison, Ferment!" incorporates parping brass and brittle death metal riffs, bolstering its swing-heavy, goth-gaze gait with the muscular density of suppurating sludge. Lacerating hooks are in plentiful supply, but PONTE DEL DIAVOLO never try too hard to draw the listener in. Instead, they skitter between subgenres with fluid grace, ensuring that nothing is certain and everything is beholden to the Italians' intuitive urges. When they dare to crabwalk across more accessible turf, as on the gorgeously bleak and fidgety "Il veleno de Natura", the quintet's in-built charm and charisma defies cynicism.

Blessed with a production that finds endless room for subtle, unexpected embellishments and surprising instrumentation, "De Venom Natura" is an assured and convincing affair. "Delta-9" is the epic centerpiece that seals the deal. A drawn-out, noirish and fervently bone-chilling trip through shadowy streets and brutish mysticism, its languorous momentum is executed with a laidback, malevolent flourish, as Erba intones blank-eyed poetry from the heart of a storm of droning guitar lines and swooping, pendulous bass. Simultaneously pretty and grotesque, PONTE DEL DIAVOLO's formula is deliciously devoid of soothing checkpoints, and whether it's the mesmerizing "Silence Walk With Me" or the closing cover of BAUHAUS's "In The Flat Field", "De Venom Natura" has so much edgy energy that it seems strategically designed to get under the skin and stay there, festering.

If their first record was a stunning way to enter the room, "De Venom Natura" is where PONTE DEL DIAVOLO start to dominate the conversation. Stylish, sinister and addictive, this is a darkly romantic nightmare made manifest.