TonyTearsItalian label Minotauro Records recently sent in a load of intriguing albums. They release “music from the labyrinth” and deal with a lot of obscure and cult artists from their home country. Not only that but it appears they take a great deal of care and attention presenting their artists work in lovely collectable packaging. Winging the discs to other writers I decided to plump for a collection of three discs from the odd sounding Tony Tears attracted by funeral artwork and promises of “Italian spooky doom” with the likes of Paul Chain, Black Hole and Goblin as reference points. This is a career retrospective of Tony’s work and takes in pretty much everything he has done between 2010 and 2014 including his most recent album Vortice. Also in Abysmal Grief this gives an incredibly thorough overview of his work and the discs are packaged in a nice black box along with some great artwork, cards featuring original release art and an explanatory fold out overview with photos. Tears apparently started  the project to bring his spiritual ideas and experiences to music so obviously it’s quite a personal journey, this is especially apparent with the first demo recording ‘Fears And Sensations In The Claustrophobic Mirror’ 2000.

I have to say this is not a great production and it’s quite muddy with little but heavy bass definition throughout. It compiles a mixture of classic sounding doom tracks with a hymnal clean vocal focus along with abstract instrumental pieces such as opening number Abyssal Destiny. Listening to some of the guitar tones here I am also reminded of the likes of Huw Lloyd Langton as numbers like ‘Stataua Di Cimitero dreamily float around. I also get a bit of an Italian horror film feel from instrumental work such as ‘The Return Of The Underground Temple’ although there is nobody composer wise or a film that particularly comes to mind to cite. It does have the right sort of atmosphere to it though and when the guitars wail I have an image of a graveyard angel with a tear running down its cheek in my head. This all leads to the four part ‘Forze Invisibili Bussano Al Cuore’ where Tony expands ideas further, the first part being electronic noise sounding like a BBC Radiophonic sound effects experiment before a 70s sounding retro organ adds creepy sombre textures and finally some leaden fuzzy guitar work and vocals sounding like they are being growled out the abyss itself. It’s all intriguing stuff but somewhat hampered by its demo like qualities giving me the feel that this early phase is something that is really going to be of most interests to real aficionados of the project.

Next on the first disc we move to first album proper Voci Dal Passato from 2009. Instantly sounding much better a strident guitar and icy blackened synth line sparkle and the atmosphere leaps up with it as a spacey air of desolation is tangible. After this instrumental set up things become more rocky and doom like with a psychedelic echoing emphasis on things. It’s obvious that it’s still somewhat experimental stylistically here. I do at times find the clean vocals a bit off putting and find myself waiting for the next instrumental section. Some of the songs such as Voci Dal Profondo are just not to my taste. It strikes as somewhat abstract, different ideas thrown around without ever really co-ordinating together from track to track. I do also find that some of the tracks seem to be allowed to meander a bit too much and vocals can be a bit off key. I much prefer the instrumental pieces such as Fiammo Dello Spirito, they even sound better produced and install the feel I anticipated when picking this. Very oddly though I do pick up nuances of Fabio Frizzi’s scores from The Beyond and Cannibal Holocaust on Mondo Parallelo which sounds like it’s taken its name straight from a Jacopetti and Prosperi film!

The first thing that strikes about disc 2 is that there are far less tracks and they are long. Indeed starting with ’The Reality Before All’ EP from 2004 the three tracks are well into double figures each time wise. 17 minute ‘Living In A World Of Pain’ starts things off and establishes that this is an instrumental exercise throughout and much more in the scope of what I was hoping for. Eerie and minimalist soundscapes flirting with electronics and ambience are the order of the day here. Not for everyone admittedly but there’s plenty of time to lose yourself in the depths of this very soundtrack orientated work. I pick up textures reminiscent of Carpenter and Vangelis here and enjoy the brooding pulse at its heart. Organ that sounds like it’s from some sort of 70’s kitsch satanic cocktail party hosted by Anton Lavey is the focus point of ‘Damned Souls Of The War.’ The titles here are a bit of a misnomer as everything is pretty restrained, chilled and mellow This one gets all witchy with what sounds like a Theremin warbling away, much more Scooby Do than anything else and a good fun yet creepy track. The whopping 20 minute ‘Violence Without Reasons’ is a doomy droning and barren place with a funereal tone making it a very sinister piece. There’s a cold grave like feel to it and it sounds a bit like an epic mass inspired maybe by Bach as much as anything else. It’s in no hurry the touch of death can wait for time immemorial and listening to this in a big gothic Italian cemetery would no doubt bring the dead crawling out their tombs. Spreading contagion with great underlying tenebrous guitar work this is the highlight of all three discs for me.

‘Le Entita Della Salvazione’ musically continues with austere organ work and vocals are again present. This track is from a 7’ and is no doubt quite a collectable one too. Although the sound is not the best it has a certain charm mainly down to the fact that any thoughts of re-mastering are out the window here and you can still here the crackles of the vinyl on this recording. Another rarity are the two tracks from the ‘All My Black’ EP  (2007).  Il Mero Nero’  is a lot more upbeat and rocking here, things are quite catchy compared to the rest of the disc and there is a pretty good psychedelic sprawl working well with the fragrant clean vocal harmonies. Unfortunately the second track ‘Evoluzione Dell Anima’ comes across more of a slushy ballad.

The last disc comprises of 2014 album Vortice and it’s another long one with some epic length tracks. The by now familiar organ strains take things up and there’s a very ritualistic and ceremonial feel as guitars slowly bite in. Tony has made a very wise decision this time around and got a vocalist David Krieg to help him out and his chants immediately make this a lot more palatable. ‘Gli Anni Del Tempo Veloce’ gives the same sort of feeling one would expect before a band like Ghost B.C. chug in, it’s kind of like a massive ten minute intro tape. Although going nowhere fast it’s full of interesting sonic noises, whooshes and pulses over that cascading hymnal voice and with the best sound so far brings things much more up to date in a retro kind of way. Le Bare Dei Giganti at 20 minutes long is definitely gigantic. It’s an exercise in highly experimental ambience and it kind of washes over me. There’s none of the funereal aspects really here it’s more mad scientist in a laboratory kind of music with ethereal choral vocals. Be warned it does rather put you in a trance and I have to wonder if he ever attempts playing this live. Wipes drool off shoulder and carries on.  Clean and harmonious vocals are much more on target from Mr Krieg (despite his name) as the lilting next short fragrant ballad proves but this just acts as just a bit of an interlude to the next 17 minute ambient sprawl.

I’m going to rein in any more description of the music itself aware this is a long review but it is a hugely expansive set running around 3 ½ hours in length. It’s obvious Tony Tears world is a very strange one to explore although just who would really be the target audience to do so is open to a certain amount of fathoming. It’s a lovely box set for those who are fans and I suspect it would be of most interest to Italians who can follow any lyrical content found within. My mark here is kind of subjective, there are parts that I liked and others that I didn’t. Vortice is certainly the high point although I found it lacked the ‘horror’ and funereal aspects a bit compared to some of the earlier material. At times a frightening place and always an intriguing one overall this did conjure some good atmospheres and certainly had my imagination working overtime.

(7/10 Pete Woods)

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