Italian dark and Occult Psychedelia
I love the italian stuff! The sheer amount of great bands with that dark and/or occult and surreal psychedelic edge from that country is astonishing. With Black Widow, Bloodrock and Heavy Psych Sounds also three of the best underground labels for that stuff are from Italy.
Albums in no particular order |
| 1 |  | Black Land
Extreme Heavy Psych
An amazing crossover between psychedelic Rock and occult heavy metal a la Mercyful Fate. The singer also sounds a bit like a street version of the lower ranges of King Diamond's voice, which is adding to that amazing obscure and underground vibe it has. Incredible stuff!! Absolute beast of an album, even though their best song is not even on it: 'the ecstasy of Awakening' a 15 minute dark psych/space rock build up, culminating in the ultimate eargasm, only released as a split 12" with Farflung. |
| 2 |  | Nibiru (Ita)
Caosgon
Improvised heavy Drone/sludge with a strong psychedelic edge, very hypnotic and menacing! |
| 3 |  | Fuoco Fatuo (Ita2)
33 colpi di schizofrenia astrale nell'abisso nero
This band has made quite the development, starting as a more conventional occult Doom Metal band, transforming into a beast of cavernous doom death/black... both phases are equally awesome, but I slightly prefer the earlier times, hence my choice of an early EP of them for this list. |
| 4 |  | Black Temple Below
Into The Black Temple
Primal mixture of ocult Doom Rock with Proto Death and black metal. |
| 5 |  | Sancta Sanctorum
The Shining Darkness
Melodic but not corny occult Rock, band project including Death SS's very own Steve Sylvester. |
| 6 |  | Last Movement
Bloove
Psychedelic space rock, possibly on first listen the least dark sounding band on this list. But there is something brooding atmospherewise behind the spacey sounds... |
| 7 |  | Wicked Minds
Return to Uranus
Another band with an interesting development: started as a Thrash Metal band in the late 80s but turned into a doom / hard rock band during the 90s. This album sounds like a psychedelic and subtly evil version of Deep Purple. |
| 8 |  | Death SS
The Story of Death SS
The originators of Italian (and possibly global?) occult/satanic metal beyond the level of Black sabbath. This is a compilation of early stuff, partly predating even early heroes like Mercyful Fate or Venom. Soundwise transforming from Alice cooper inspired dark rock into primitive and obscure proto Death/black not completely unlike Venom. During their career they made chameleon-like changes in their sound incorporating hard rock, gothic, industrial and dark electronics at times. |
| 9 |  | Paul Chain
Alkahest
Solo project of former Death SS guitar player Paul Chain who ventures into a lot of different caves across the dark, doomy and psychedelic musical spectrum. this album is a collab with Lee Dorrian and features more classical Doom stuff. |
| 10 |  | Caronte
Church Of Shamanic Goetia
Dark Stoner Doom, with a certain slight leaning towards cirith ungol like sounds. |
| 11 |  | Woodwall
WoodEmpire
Psychedelic but highly energetic Stoner Rock/Metal. |
| 12 |  | Earth and Pillars
Earth I
Somewhat of a musical outlier on this list as this is Black Metal, albeit ambient and doomy. Still brings the atmosphere that makes it belong here, great trip! |
| 13 |  | My Home On Trees
How I Reached Home
Stoner Rock with elegic female vocals, great live band! |
| 14 |  | Doomraiser
Mountains Of Madness
More than slightly Heavy Metal tinged Doom. Overall atmosphere, band name and Lovecraftian lyric themes make them worthy members of this list! |
| 15 |  | Black Rainbows
Hawkdope
Fuzzy n' heavy desert stoner Rock. These guys bring the rifffffs! |
| 16 |  | Black Hole
Land of Mystery
Awesome doom/horror metal Gem from 1985. Somehow minimalist but effective and even somewhat experimental with the church organ sounds! |
| 17 |  | Tony Tears
Demons Crawl at Your Side
Another long standing act which is well travelled among different sub genres of the occult, psychedelic and dark. This one is less experimental and operaic than some of their other stuff, but gothic infused doom rock/metal. The raw sound and atmosphere clearly set it apart from polished cheesy gothic though. |
| 18 |  | Black Spell
The Purple Skull
Electric Wizard worshippin' Stoner doom/sludge but with shorter and more simple and straight forward songs (for better or worse). |
| 19 |  | Ufomammut
Fenice
Heavy as fuck but still outerworldly and trippy. Beast of a live band too! This album is terribly underrated on sput. |
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