Blizaro — City of the Living Nightmare

'City of the Living Nightmare’ is the skewed musical vision of John Gallo under the very apt Blizaro moniker. The entire album pays homage to Gallo’s obvious love of old Italian horror flicks infused with a classic doom metal influence, complete with eccentric keyboard sections and an all-encompassing psychedelic haze. Goblin and Black Sabbath are the obvious comparisons that spring to mind on first listen, Sabbath famously sourced their title from the old Italian horror film of the same name so the connection between the two may not seem as farfetched as it first sounds…indeed the final track on the album is a cover version of Goblins most renowned work for the Dario Argento classic ‘Suspiria’.

Black Sabbath and Goblin worship aside, the album definitely stands on its own two feet, the ability to slip between old school psych vibes into more modern sounding doom territory with ease, whilst bringing all the endearing qualities of the Italian horror soundtrack style to the fore, makes this release worthy of attention. The album’s title track kick-start’s the journey with grand operatic vocal chorus’s and clean cut guitars instantly setting the mood before breaking into heavier realms of curiosity. Each shifting section of the eight minute opener plays out in the mind’s eye as individual scenes from Gallo’s imaginary vintage horror tribute, bringing a big grin to the face of anyone who has even a passing interest in the genre.

The whole album is very tongue in cheek for its entirety, pure analogue bursts of peculiar, but familiar keyboard passages throughout add to the overly theatrical element, before dropping into straight up blues rock of old with brief interludes of cosmic horror, keeping interest levels high and retaining integrity. Stand out tracks for me include the fantastically heavy ‘Midnight Lurkers’, the avant-garde eccentricity of ‘Catacomb Man’ and the equally fantastical ‘Mental Disease Overture’. If you want to take a nostalgic but interesting trip through classic horror cinema then ‘City of the Living Nightmare’ comes highly recommended.