The Theater of Horrors: the disenchantment of “The Empire of Darkness”
Although the last album dates back to almost ten years ago, the album of the same name was released in 2015, and the band officially announced its dissolution some time ago, in the rock world the name The Theater of HorrorIt still makes my heart beat and my skin vibrate. That of Piero Paolo Capovilla, Gionata Mirai, Giulio Ragno Favero and Francesco Valente was one of the most adrenaline-filled and powerful bands in the history of Italian rockor. “Of the empire of darkness”, their first cry, is certainly one of the seminal albums of that ferment of the early 2000s that characterized the independent scene. Between visceral screams, Carmelo Bene-style declamations and poetry, even bothering Céline and Baudelairethe project has indelibly marked the sounds and artistic path of Il Teatro degli Orrori.
The album was released in April 2007 by La Tempesta Dischi, Venus distribution. Overdrive Records, a few weeks ago, has announced a second release for its reprint series aptly titled “Great Years”. It can be purchased on cassette and vinyl in black, colored and deluxe editions. Each vinyl copy is embellished with a graphic engraving on the D side with the complete tracklist. Everything will be published on July 5thbut pre-order is available as early as June 1st. The album, even today, is deservedly presented as an extreme, feverish, lyrical and courageous work: a real “rock opera” in eleven acts. Of notable impact was the elegant and at the same time powerful use of the Italian language, not very inclined to the style of Capovilla, who until then had always written and sung in English with One Dimensional Man. Even the musical genre used, in a mix between hardcore, noise-rock and singer-songwriterremains unique for the panorama of that historical period.
As regards the topics covered, the album deals with the loss of identity and values with cynical bitterness and total disenchantmentthe difficulty of living in an arid world devoid of empathy (“The Empire of Darkness”)but there is also a search for hope and light (“My life”)as he also seems to say the eclipse immortalized on the cover. The hypocrisy of war is in the crosshairs (“Tankrock!”) and religion, which however in the narrative of training has always maintained an element of pietas as opposed to the spread of consumerism. “Tom’s Song”, one of the most beautiful songs ever written by the group, is dedicated to Tom Dreyer, Capovilla’s friend who died in a car accident. There are also real elegies such as “Music Lesson” and “Companion Teresa”, a song about resistance, loneliness and love. “Of the empire of darkness” is a manifest album, imbued with restlessness and life. A courageous project, without filters, that does not age.
