An eleven tracks – plus a ghost track – journey which goes deep into the human soul and its natural conflicts: The Black Veils’ second studio album ‘Dealing With Demons‘ is the product of a proper urgency. Not the urgency of telling a story but the actual need of supporting instincts. Every single song of the album has been made and build as it immediately came to mind: no-frills, just a bunch of very intimate and focused tracks. Echoes of post-punk and shoegaze are constantly building tension as they reflect the incessant search of the melody, which is caged in very dark and melancholic atmospheres and in very powerful and “violent” ones as well.
‘Dealing With Demons‘ is a “concept” about the need of facing the demons that are constantly fighting inside our hearts and our souls, the same dangerous demons that sometimes are taking control of every single thought or behaviour. ‘Dealing With Demons‘ is a “concept” about the process of changing through all the frustrations born from love, hate and abandon. First of all, the album is a concept about the awareness of being nothing more than fragile and flawed bags of meat, solitudes that meet and clash, constantly looking for tolerance and compassion and finally annihilated by our natural lack of communication.The surreal and melancholic lyrics reveal, in a very direct way, the endless struggle of a passionate man – trapped in the XXI century – against the typical contradictions of desire. From Mishima (“True Beauty Attacks!”) to Dalì (“The Persistence of Memory”, “The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory”), from Cohen to Morrissey (“Dealing with Demons”) and Christopher Lee (“The Wicker Man”), the album is also full of tributes and references.
If The Black Veils’ first album ‘Blossom‘ was something in-between romantic new-wave and obscure textures, ‘Dealing With Demons‘ is the product of a constant sound research as well as the fusion of many different influences. Guitars, bass and vocals always sound as “solo” instruments that successfully intersect in all the eleven tracks of the album. Produced by The Black Veils and Gianluca Lo Presti (record producer and long-time collaborator of musicians as Tying Tiffany and Blaine L. Reininger of Tuxedomoon), “Dealing with Demons” is the first official release of the newborn record label called “Atmosphere Records”, which gathers some of Italy’s most intriguing post-punk and darkwave contemporary bands.
Words by Gregor Samsa
Music by The Black Veils
Produced by The Black Veils & Gianluca Lo Presti (Nevica su 4.0)
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at Lotostudio, Ravenna
Gregor Samsa:Vocals
Mario d’Anelli: Guitars, Synth, Drum Machine, Drums
Filippo Scalzo: Bass
Alessandro Antolini: Drums (Tracks 2, 8, 9, 10)