Cielo Drive - "Red Magik Mushroom" ...

Cielo Drive, from Rome, is a new band arising from the Italian stoner-doom rock/metal panorama.   The quartet includes Giulio Serpico Marini on vocals, guitars and effects, Fulvio Glerean on guitars, Francesca Kamelia Cascasi on bass and vocals, and Tiziano Giammichele on drums. Apart from drummer Tiziano, who is related to the cool stoner-death’n’roll band Camion, the other band members come from very different musical experiences, ranging from melodic death/black metal, dark elektro/prog metal to thrash/hardcore. Nevertheless Cielo Drive’s debut album, Red Magick Mushroom, is rocking quite hard as if the guys plus gal have been playing what they play for a substantial while! The choice of the band’s name, album title and album cover sets some reference points about the intentions of this bunch of rockers.  The band’s name reminds of the address of the villa where Sharon Tate, Roman Polansky’s pregnant wife, and her friends were slaughtered on August 9th 1969 by Charles Manson and his  followers. So hardly the mention of a Californian site can sound more gloomy than this one …  The album title, “Red Magick Mushroom”, is duly exaggerate in the way excess with strong hues and psychotropic substances is allowed in psychedelic rock, stoner and doom. And the cover art further confirms that these folks want to play heavy, retro, psyched-out and unholy music. And they do it quite well.

Cielo Drive’s debut album is a full hommage to the big names of heavy stoner, southern and traditional psych-doom panorama, as plainly stated by the band that “ … was born from the personal desire to play and mix Stoner and Doom, with no special refinements or stylistic innovation, enriching the mixture with a good dose of Blues. The sound of Cielo Drive is naked, raw and direct …”. And lyrics are based on another passion of the band, of classic horror movies of the 60s and 70s, Horror/Gothic literature (well, Lovecraft for sure), and introspection.  So here is “Red Magick Mushroom” that will keep you pleasantly busy over 45 minutes with its six tracks. Yes, only six tracks, so you have to expect rather long songs (up to almost 12 minutes-long in one case). The opener “Dexter” introduces Cielo Drive’s powerful heavy distorted riffs drenched in dirty southern groove and enriched with wah-wah effects invariably sounding “American”. Vocal parts are added as somewhat subdued choir mostly in the first part of the track. This track is maybe a bit too long (over 8 minutes): the absence of remarkable tempo changes eventually dilutes too much the impact of the winning riffs.  The title track “Red Magick Mushroom” is lead by tough Sabbathian riffs and sees the vocal section getting more powerful and varied as well. This is a quite multifaceted track where the band mixes traditional doom, psychedelia (especially at the closure of the track) and even something, I guess, from the other musical experiences of the band members. For example, the interesting highly melodic refrains where even some growl is heard for a few seconds, reminded me of Swedish-type melodic death metal à-la-In Flames.

The drumming style and sound (or the way it has been rendered) is something that struck me in this track as well as in the rest of the album: solid, thick, dense and sometimes rolling according to some sort of tribal/ethno style. Cool! The following tracks, “The Colors From Beyond” (this one as well so much of Lovecraftian memory …) and “Vertigo” (hey, that’s Hitchcock!) are where the band’s guitar players stretch their fingers on some more juicy dynamic riff sequences. Both tracks are comparably fast and adhering to the classic heavy stoner rock/metal style in the vein of Monster Magnet, Orange Goblin etc.. And speaking about the band’s musical relationships, these tracks are where the echoes of band Camion are probably most perceived. The luring spires of bluesy groove generated by the heavy distorted riffs make these two tracks quite enjoyable, but the stream of swampy groove cannot conceal some background sinister atmospheres.  A truly remarkable, highly distorted bass line can be heard particularly in “The Colors From Beyond” as well as the next track “A Crimson Ecstasy”, a charming, almost 12 minutes-long suite driven by a highly hypnotic psych doom theme. In this suite everything is slow-paced and plodding, i.e. the leading raw, distorted cycling riff, the double vocal parts (where Kamelia’s voice is clearly heard) and that impressive vibrating bass sound that reminds me of the one heard in Horse Latitudes. Everything is greatly kept together by the thick ritualistic drumming and cymbals in the background. Raw doped psych doom but enriched by a generous dose of swampy blues, like Electric Wizard or War Iron made southern.

The closing track, “Saturnalia”, sees the band exploring psychedelic, desert, when not post-metal, territories in the long ethereal intro, although the powerful, beefy riffs heard before will soon come back. Again deformed vocals struggle for emerging amidst the riffs. The “desert” will come back in the atmospheric inset in the heart of the track, where again that cool tribal drumming can be heard and appreciated. A final “heavy metal” charge is there to remember that these guys plus gal are able to beat hard as well …So, I would say, a cool way to start!  If I have to compare what I heard in this album to bands in the by now big Italian scene, well, I think I may mention bands like Black Rainbows, El-Thule, Oak’s Mary, Hards of Orlac, and so on. Plus, obviously, something personal added by the band. As a listener, for the future I would advise the band not to exaggerate with an excessive length of the tracks and maybe to give vocals a more important role. Get in contact with the band for this cool slab of a debut!

Words by Marilena Moroni

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Cielo Drive – A Crimson Ecstasy