Name-wise these guys had smartly chosen a name derived from a scientific term (mydriasis) maybe a bit tricky to read but very evocative. Mydriasis is the excessive dilation of the pupil due to various causes like disease, trauma, death, or, less tragically, the use of drugs. Useless to say, our metal rockers in Midryasis are all in for the latter! After over ten years of activity, Midryasi are rocking harder than ever. Coming from Varese, in Northern Italy, Midryasi jumped into the Italian underground heavy scene with their amazing self-titled debut demo released back in 2004. The band went through some changes in the line-up especially in the last years. But the initial spirit and love for doom, retro psych-prog rock and improvisation, moving founders Guanera, Convulsion and Sappah back in 2002, is still there and stronger than ever. Like their music. During 2007 Midryasi became Convulsion on bass and vocals, Sappah on drums and Paul Paganhate on guitars (replacing Guanera). Sappah is also known for his militancy in the psychedelic beast Da Captain Trips. After the acclaimed powerful 2009 album Corridors (out on Iron Tyrant Records) and after several years of much live activity in Italy and abroad, the band incorporated a valuable new element, prog metaller and keyboard-player Udz (aka Umberto Desanti), whose contribution added further fuel to the band also during live exhibitions. And at the beginning of 2013 a new, vigorous album, Black, Blue & Violet, came to life.
The new album to come had been hinted and mentioned in more than one inteview done by our Aleks with Midryasi’s guys, last year and at the very beginning of this year. Then the official announcement came and eventually the band celebrated the newborn album with a big release party at the beginning of March. Black, Blue & Violet includes seven tracks for almost 40 minutes of intense riff-laden, proggy heavy psych doom tunes where Midryasis’ main sources of inspiration, i.e., Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, retro Hawkwind-like space psychedelia and acid rock, the dark ferocity of Celtic Frost, Italian retro-prog rock, desert rock, etc., are blended in the dynamic and lively way typical for these guys. Black, Blue & Violet is one of those albums capable to translate and convey the energy of a band’s live exhibitions both for the vortex of variegated music continuously stimulating your imagination and for the fine quality of the sound. You may also add a further bonus, a visual one, if you consider the beauty of the vinyl version of the album which is coloured according to its title: black background broken by radiating blue and violet spikes and flames, dark, luscious and psychedelic at the same time.
Track The Counterflow is a great way of plunging into Midryasi’s heavily rocking Black, Blue and Violet world. This powerful song opens with retro electronic effects and the strong impact of Sappah’s thundering tribal-like drumming before a vortex of riffs will explode. Midryasi’s distorted guitar sounds are raw, deep, dissonant, aggressive, yet hot: sometimes they remind me of the guitar sounds in one of my fave bands, Witchcraft, when they “go metal”, like in their latest album. These distinctive features seem to accompany Midryasi in their releases through time and are part of the band’s own style. Another feature is dynamics that in this new album, as before, is materialized by contorted riffs and melodic patterns, tempo and stylistic changes. Definitely you don’t get bored with Midryasi. But what adds a special flavour is the adoption of retro-sounding solutions, dark sabbathian heaviness and vintage psychedelia. And speaking about retro-style, right in the opening track you’ll feel the power of the substantial addition of gothic-sounding keyboards to Midryasi’s “speed doom”, even if the sound of keyboards is often easily overwhelmed by the roaring guitars plus drums and Convulsion’s voice. Although personal, Convulsion’s strained chanting may sometimes equally recall Bobby Liebling and Magnus Pelander of Witchcraft.
Track “Diagonal” is slower, sinister and very charming in its mixture of occult atmospheres and retro psychedelic rock with keyboards and effects plus vocal distortions. The richness in shades of this album, and consequently the skills of this long lived band, are also testified by the ability of composing emotionally intense ballads like “Behind My Ice”. The song is introduced by a stream of intimacy coming from the interplay between samples of children’s voices, soft keyboard sounds, and space-like, ethereal leading melodies recalling Pink Floyd and Hawkwind. The intensity of the band’s riffs and Convulsion’s passionate singing will reinforce the stream of passion in this doomy ballad. After the mourns, the jewel of “Back in the Maze” will hook you up with its churning spires of great smokey, acid, heavy psych-prog rock straight from the 70’s blended with some powerful doom heaviness. Infectious! The proggy ballad Black, Blue & Violet is one of the most charming and complex tracks of this album and loaded with atmosphere. Here Udz’s keyboards are definitely the backbone of the melody and also lead some solos nested in the flamboyant riff-laden heavy rock sections. The Nuclear Dog is a refreshing heavy, space-fuzzy rock “divertissement” where the band play “fast and furious and jolly”, before the final charge of “Hole of the Saturday Night”. This is a great slab of dark, fuzzy, acid doom very much inspired by Pentagram and graced by that awesome keyboard sound. This seducing track develops in a hypnotic, meandering way like the vortex of smoke from your fat joint and progressively slows down until it dies out. Slumber.
Here is the band’s interpretation of the colours: “Black, as night and the visions evoked by Hole of the Saturday Night; Blue, as the violent fluid feelings of The Counterflow and violet, as the reflections and flares captured by Diagonal.” Midryasi’s new album is for those who love “old school” heavy rock sounds, dark sounds, retro prog-psychedelia and heavy doom reworked in a personal way by people who love and have fun with music. After ten years this band is alive and kicking more than ever and keep on making great music. The new album is in full continuity with the previous production, so those who loved Midryasi’s previous releases will be rewarded. However the stable addition of and the bigger role for keyboards surely gave and give great results both on disk and gig-wise.
Black, Blue & Violet came out as CD via label My Graveyard Productions during January 2013 and then as vinyl LP version via RockWolf Records at the end of February 2013.
Words: Marilena Moroni
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My Graveyard Productions
Rock Wolf Records