Embedded Files
BEDSORE “Dreaming The Strife For Love”
BEDSORE “Dreaming The Strife For Love”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Italian weirdos BEDSORE are back and this time they’ve gone whole hog into the world of 70’s Italian progrock. On their debut album, they were eccentric death metal with noticeable traces of prog. Here, they are 100% a prog rock band with slight traces of death metal, which are mostly found in the vocals of Jacopo Gianmaria Pepe.
“Dreaming The Strife For Love”, which is a concept based on a surreal medieval manuscript, sounds like it could have come out in 1975, the great heyday of Italian progressive rock. A plethora of keyboard sounds dominate the album, from classic Moog and Mellotron to piano and church organ. Toss in horns and string instruments as needed and you have a very operatic sounding album. To tell the truth, this album is much more in Dark Starr’s neighborhood than mine...I wonder what he would make of it?
While it is refreshing to hear something different, this version of BEDSORE is very meandering and wandering. It does bring to mind the excesses of 70’s prog which resulted in the creation of punk rock as an antidote. First track “Minerva’s Obelisque” is literally 6 plus minutes of gradually rising build-up. We can tell right away that BEDSORE’s death metal days are in the rearview. “Scars of Light”, the following track, is probably the best and heaviest here, a true mix of death and elder prog. Pepe’s vocals are always harsh and grating, but are not a main focus. This album is about wandering through progressive semi-classical fields, as on the rather tedious “A Colossus, An Elephant, A Winged Horse, the Dragon Rendezvous”, which frankly is as pretentious as it sounds. In contrast, the briefest tune, “Fanfare For a Heartfelt Love”, is actually a tight, powerful bit of cinematic bombast...one of the best tracks.
BEDSORE have bravely dived into days of yore here and the result is peculiar. If you are a fan of obscure Italian prog like ALPHATAURUS and LE ORME, this album is absolutely essential. If you’re looking for bone-crushing death or tight songwriting, move along, little dogie…
Report abuse