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spiritualbat_cruelmachine
Artist: The Spiritual Bat
Title: Cruel Machine
Genre: Deathrock
Release Date: 27th May 2011
Label: Danse Macabre


Album Review

‘Cruel Machine’ is a very special album for a number of reasons. First it’s quasi a debut album from a band, that technically exists for almost 19 years now, owning a career, that includes several outputs and highly regarded live-appearances so far. And secondly it contains some important stylistic elements, that weren’t intended to be part of the musical spectre in the beginning. But let’s untangle this confusion with some history: THE SPIRITUAL BAT is an Italian two-piece, that rose from the bones of the SPIRITUAL BATS, an outfit, that gained a lot of reputation among the circles of Deathrock and Batcave, then in the mid-nineties. Founded in 1992 by multi-instrumentalist Dario Passamonti and companion Matteo Bracaglia, the two-headed band caught attention with their extraordinary performances, based on hermetic and alchemistic installations and projections used on stage. With their first output in the back the Bats went on touring ( so they opened for some of the shows of Rozz Williams Daucus Karota in 1994) and increased the bands profile and awareness on both sides of the ocean. In 1995 the band met the fate in the form of Rosetta Garri, a self-titled shamanic drummer, whose work was to become very important for the spiritual and ritual musical layers of the bands output.

That line-up released the SPIRITUAL BATS’ masterpiece ‘Sacrament’ in 1999 before Matteo decided to leave the band in 2004. As an result from that Dario Passamonti erased the “S” from the bands name and THE SPIRITUAL BAT was born. Taken as a new beginning, the band’s Raison d'Être was intended to release only instrumental tracks, absent from stages and publicity, putting the focus more on the spiritual depth and the compositional atmosphere. But, how life goes, during the recordings of the album ‘Through the shadows’ (2008), drummer Rosetta got a burst of inspiration and started to write some lyrics for some tracks and so it came, that the album saw the debut of her as vocalist on some of the songs. And another landmark arrived those days. Right before the recordings the bands long-time friend and sound engineer (responsible for all of the Bats recordings) died away and it was a promise, that gave Dario to him to play the new songs live some day, that sounded the bell for the bands return on stage (Celebrated with two expanded US-tours in 2009/10).

So much about that little historical digression, what was important to shine a light on the way, that led to ‘Cruel Machine’. And when I spoke about an “debut” some lines above, then for the fact, that Rosetta has completely filled her role as a singer now and the regained live-experiences seem to have a decisive influence on the new compositions. In relation to it’s predecessor the album sounds straighter again, a little less experimental, but more offensive. I know it’s paltry, but it’s an unwanted association, that leads me to names like CHRISTIAN DEATH or Mrs. Siouxsie Sioux while listening to the album, but in that case it’s more a kind of recognition, than a missing concession of creativity. But let’s finally take a more detailed look at the songs:

Starting with the eponymous track we’re directly diving deep down in the albums almost web-like atmosphere. Rosetta’s voice seems to waft enthroned above a fog of swirling bass lines, beating drum-patterns and wailing guitar injections. You can almost feel the impact the act of performing had on the way of composing. A very straight structure, free of irrelevancies and squiggles, clearing the way for the vocals to rise and to fall through the octaves. The same to say about ‘Thunderstorm’, what seamless follows and keeps the energy and the agitative and self-releasing mood in an almost evocation-like level. It seems that Rosetta tries to sing weights off her shoulders, intonating and invocating a spiritual intensity, that feels tangible in a dazing way. Like on ‘Sento’, what seems to be a little Italian sung bastard, blurring the edges between a punk-like arrangement, with marching drums and penetrating guitars, and a sometimes classical, operatic timbre.

What all songs obviously unites (besides the recognition of Mrs. Garri´s vocals) is the plainness of the instrumentation. A skeleton of drums, afflicted with fibres and tendons of pinpointed guitars and scattered shades of accentuating synth-passages, best to study in tracks like ‘Once upon a Time’ and ‘Tormented Body’, both reworked versions of older Bats-songs from the mid-nineties. And this proves how fathomed the bands musical cosmos is, cause even the older compositions catch, keep and carry energy and atmosphere without to loose or to neglect any degree of tension, side by side with the new songs, from which ‘The other Side’ marks one of my personal highlights, because of it’s melancholia, oscillating among a catchy bass-line, psychedelic, almost crying guitars and the wailing and yearning voice of Rosetta Garri.

The fact, that a lot of the material was written while touring the US results not only in that energetic live-atmosphere, armed with speed and rhythm (on songs like ‘Crucifixion’ and ‘Deceiving’), but it also mirrors political, social and environmental problems and tragedies, which took place that time. (Like the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and several wars all over the globe) And here rests one of the main messages of the album, the ubiquitous presence of mortality, death and despair with all their mundane masks from what you can only escape by travelling and leaving in another spiritual dimension, a path the band takes by procession, dignified and arcane, like keepers of a lost and ancient knowledge…

Résumé: ‘Cruel Machine’ is an album with a great impact on the mood and the listener’s spiritual state, as long as you’re willing to dive into. Maybe the atmospheric variety seems to be a bit single-edged in the context of the whole album, but maybe there are some sentiments which only can be expressed in a certain way. No music for relaxing the soul, but an inherently consistent mantra for cleaning it...


Tracklist

01. Cruel Machine
02. Thunderstorm
03. Sento
04. Once Upon A Time
05. Tormented Body
06. The Other Side
07. Chance
08. Empty Halls
09. Crucifixion
10. Lament For The Poisoned Mother
11. Deceiving
12. Sacrament
13. Acquoreo


Line-up

Dario Passamonti – Instruments
Rosetta Garri – Vocals, Drumming


Website

www.myspace.com/thespiritualbat


Cover Picture

spiritualbat_cruelmachine


Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10


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