Review Summary: Sounds like: Interpol marrying U2 and having a gay Italian child with Katatonia. Features members of the Italian metal band The Foreshadowing.
2008 was a great year for music but more often than not, some of the stronger releases tended to be overlooked on sputnik and go by with little or no attention. This is one such case for the Italy based rock band Klimt 1918. The band originally formed in 1999 through the ashes of a death metal band called Another Day but that broke down soon paving way for a huge stylistic shift. I just discovered the band several months ago after reading several raving advertisements and reviews of their latest offering “Just In Case We’ll Never Meet Again.” The comparisons didn’t hurt either, with magazines describing Klimt1918 as blend of Interpol, U2, and Katatonia. Needless to say, I felt compelled to give this band a try although the hype was ridiculously overblown.
“Just In Case We’ll Never Meet Again’ is an interesting album to listen to because the band seems to transcend genres with relative ease. Klimt1918’s character so to speak channels some of the 90’s bigger indie and alternative rock bands around with a slight progressive bent , often incorporating post rock melodies and shoe gaze atmosphere complete with the lo-fi buzz saw tone pioneered by My Bloody Valentine. My favorite aspect of this band is the highly contagious guitar work. Very mellow and uplifting, the duo of Marco and Francesco excel at crafting luscious chord progressions often reminiscent of U2’s glory days. The sublime guitar melodies are wrapped around Marco’s charismatic vocals. His cleanly sung vocals are very powerful and at times ethereal in the sense of sounding very pleasant and welcoming to the ears. Although his accent lends the music a distinct Euro feel, the vocal patterns rarely shift to a new direction resulting in some of the tracks sounding a bit alike. The bass work while minimal, blends into the main and rhythm guitars nicely while opting for a more subtle behind the scenes approach.
The production is quite clean, allowing the guitars to drive the feeling and emotion of the music. As I said before though, Klimt1918 often try to incorporate shoe gaze atmosphere by adding a fuzzy layer of distortion stemming from rhythm guitar. I love shoe gaze but this added element doesn’t really benefit or downgrade the music. My feeling on the matter is neutral but I do have one complaint with this record. The songwriting patterns often imitate each other except for the occasional change in tempo. Other than that though, Klimt1918 have created one of the more interesting records of the year that fans of post rock and mellow alternative should check out. The direction of this band has shifted from gothic metal to indie rock so I am quite interested to see what happens next with Klimt1918.
Highlights:
Ghost Of A Tape Listener
Skygazer
