By Enrico Spinelli
X is the tenth studio work for Steve Sylvester's creature, now on the threshold of 45 years of life. Of course, I don't need to remind you how much I am linked to the Italian band - I have dedicated a commented discography to it on this blog (click here in case you missed it) - I will limit myself to reiterating how I personally found every release of Death SS as excellent, and the high opinion I have towards his production finds further confirmation in this latest album, a new concentrate of classic heavy metal, dark, rocky and with minimal modern influences.
Already an earthquake is the mid-tempo opening, "The Black Plague", makes clear the live attitude of this record. The single "Zora", dedicated to the comic book character of the same name, stands out for its power, involvement and a refrain that gets stuck in the head, a characteristic that we will find in the rest of the lineup, where darker passages alternate with more classic songs without ever appearing you face the specter of boredom or the already heard ("Under Satan Sun", "The Rebel God" and "The Temple of the Rain" are examples of heavy metal to scream out loud).
The tribute to Dario Argento is striking with "Suspiria", complete with an evil accordion at the end, as well as the apocalyptic "The World is Doomed" (the title says it all) and a sort of ballad with hard-rock nuances stands out for its intensity "The Heretics", a manifesto of those who do not yield to any organized cult. The classic and always engaging "Lucifer" closes the circle, putting the seal on a rather homogeneous and high-impact work, fun and direct, of the right duration (thank you god!) and always inspired; really a great return for band lovers and a good opportunity for those who do not know Death SS to fill this gap (although, perhaps, I would recommend starting with the triptych In Death of Steve Sylvester-Heavy Demons-Panic).
I conclude this piece by pointing out, for most fetishists, that the first edition of the disc comes with a nice box containing a nice comic as a gift, of which I do not show the cover here so I don't incur to possible censorship.