Chemical Waves, the darkwave/coldwave project from Rome has released a new album, Stories From the World where, as usual, we can find a lot of collaborations. Among the guest voices of this new album, we have Bedless Bones who also collaborated in the notable Even When We Fall Apart that we liked so much. Others names that can be familiar to our readers are Gerd Van Geel from classic band The Arch, Texan darkwave project Death Loves Veronica, French Then Came the Rain, the singer of Portuguese duo Velvet Kills, unclassifiable XTR Human and post-punk band from Washington Social Station. As previous albums, Stories From the World is a good place to discover new interesting bands of your favourite genres.
The album starts with Bedless Bones, who adds lots of sensuality and passion to a track full of great guitars, that could be describe as a mixture of Garbage and Depeche Mode. Gerd Van Geel from The Arch sings in “Obsession and Cure”, a track with a minimal musical background that gives him the possibility of really showing off. If one day we meet someone who has never listened to Goth music and asks us for an example of this style, this song could be the perfect one, as it kind of captures perfectly the spirit of our favourite music. One of the best tracks of the album. The Purge brings some classic vibes to his “Demon in Me”, another great song full of darkness. As it’s frequent in everything Chemical Waves, album, it’s time for the interlude, this one the beautiful “Eternally”. “A Dark Prayer” continues, giving us goosebumps, in a very cinematographic tune greatly sang by Death Loves Veronica.
In “Alibi”, we have powerful and martial rhythm, guitars that will make you think on The Cure and the nice voice of Sara Stuttgart. “Sixty”, with the collaboration of Then Came the Rain has a really disturbing beginning that will frighten you. It´s a slow and dark track, perfect to listen to in a winter night. In “Rangers on the Road” we have a great interpretation of Su Eko from Velvet Kills in another of the top tracks of the album. The rhythm slows down becoming almost funebre in “On Another’s Sorrow” where the beautiful voice of Iris Capricorn takes us thru paths of infinite sadness. Another of the great moments of the album. “Your Voice” is a strange track with the voice of XTR Human, less immediate than the others that you need to listen to a few times to correctly appreciate. Social Station sings with a lot of passion in the ethereal “Field of Static”. And at the end of the album, we have the frightening atmosphere with guitars of “Cruel”.
If you liked the previous works of Chemical Waves, it’s impossible that you are not going to like this one. Although the formula is the same, the variety of guest voices made every album a unique experience. And we must add that the compositions are quite good and the arrangements are the right ones for every track, making it another of highly recommended album from the Roman musician.
