VULVACROMA

www.vulvacroma.com
vulvacroma@hotmail.com

Vulvacroma was formed in 2000 by MT, VS and YSM, well known players in north-east italian scene. MT performed guitar and vocals parts (already in Emptiness and Eventide), VS played bass guitar (already in Tragic Serenades and Diabolus Ex Machina, now with Stigmhate), YSM performed drum parts (already in Emptiness, now with Hypnotheticall).
Vulvacroma started playing a real black metal, inspired by essential bands like Satyricon, Darkthrone and first Mayhem. Vulvacroma songs consist in simply but powerful guitar riffs, distorted bass, ultrafast drums and glacial screams, everything mixed to create a sound alchemy giving the listeners a sensation of cold and nothingness.
At the end of 2000 Vulvacroma recorded a first rehearsal tape with absolutely rotten sound. It consists of three tracks of raw black metal, plus a Mayhem cover of "Freezing Moon".
After this recording YSM left the band.
Due to difficulties in replacing YSM with a real drummer, MT and VS decided to avail themselves of a drum machine.
After a long period of planning and rehearsal, at the end of 2001 Vulvacroma recorded the first promo-CD with three tracks of real black metal. Promo-CD was produced, promoted and distributed by SINQUE PRODUCTIONS.
And now here they are...

REVIEWS OF "PROMO 2001"

WWW.VAMPIRE-MAGAZINE.COM
VULVACROMA is yet another band who consists out of members with abbreviations. Original members MT and VS now lead the way for their atheistic black-metal as YSM left the band in '00 just after the recordings of the first rehearsal tape. Being inspired since the beginning by Norwegian acts such as SATYRICON, DARKTHRONE and MAYHEM, VULVACROMA takes their level of intensity as high as these legends used to do. Fast aggressive black-metal awaits! It's a bloody shame that their worldwide debut only lasts for 14-something minutes. This music should've last half an hour at least in my opinion, due to the great black-metal on "Promo 2001".
Because of YSM' retirement and MT and VS didn't want a replacement for the drums, they availed themselves a drum-computer. The influence of the electronics becomes clear from the start as it produces a pretty fake sound, but thanks to the gadget VULVACROMA delivers very fast furious black-metal you like it; raw sound, aggressive vocals and very distorted guitars. In all three the songs the drums enter at full speed after some mid-tempo riffs. Great examples are 'Dreamlike Crosses Break' and 'Hopeless' where this is being used. The songs are pretty original thanks to the non-constant pounding, but with some breaks between them. Only the vocals can be really referred to SATYRICON and the other mentioned bands above. The music tends to be more of MARDUK-calibre thanks to the great speed.
Although "Promo 2001" only has three tracks in the media, the disk I received has a fourth track on it. Eager to hear what VULVACROMA has more to offer, the curiousness quickly turns into a pile of shit! One minute ten of a drunken piano with a serious hangover from the day before. VULVACROMA is at the moment working on new material for their second CD. They also want to bring their music on stage so if there's a suited drummer in North Italy available, mail them!

WWW.METAL .DE (in german)
"Vulvacroma songs consist in simply but powerful guitar riffs, distorted bass, ultrafast drums and glacial screams [...]". Kann man so eigentlich stehen lassen, allerdings würde ich einen Grossteil davon in ein etwas weniger positoves Licht rücken. Man ist offensichtlich dem Irrtum aufgesessen, dass simpelste, zigfach aneinandergereihte Gitarrenriffs automatisch eine gute Black Metal Scheibe garantieren. Dass dem aber definitiv nicht so ist, beweist "Promo 2001" auf sehr anschauliche Art und Weise. Das Material dümpelt trotz äusserst hohem Tempo nur so vor sich hin, und schafft es weder, irgendwelche Gefühle, welcher Art auch immer, aufkommen zu lassen, noch irgendwelche Körperpartien des Zuhörers zur stimmungsvollen Bewegung zu animieren. Der Rest ist eigentlich nebensächlich, sollte aber doch erwähnt werden. Für eine Black Metal Produktion ist der Bass extrem weit in den Vordergrund gemischt. Eigentlich gefällt mir das, aber hier surrt und vibriert es fast schon zu sehr aus den Boxen. Da der Drummer die Band noch vor den Aufnahmen zu diesem Demo verlassen hat, hat man sich ausserdem eines Drumcomputers bedienen müssen. Und das hört man auch extrem, vor allem in den schnellen Parts (die etwa 90% der 3 Songs ausmachen) fällt das sehr auf. Wäre bei besserem Material aber wohl nicht so schlimm, im grossen und ganzen klingt die Produktion nämlich ein wenig nach Limbonic Arts "Ad Noctum", was mir eigentlich recht gut gefällt. Sehr nach Limbonic Art erinnert auch der ordentliche Kreischgesang, der aber auch nicht über die wirklich grosse kompositorische Schwäche der zwei Italiener hinweghelfen kann. Ans Herz kann ich dieses Scheibchen also leider niemandem legen. Wer es aber trotzdem haben möchte, kann das Demo für 5 Euro (inkl. Versand) über die Bandhomepage bestellen. (mf_Greg / 31.03.2003)

TOMBSTONE
A demo with four songs from an Italian band playing extreme music influenced from both extreme black metal bands and death metal bands. Their music is closer to old school and raw black metal than death metal but some elements are there nevertheless. In their sound you can find influences from Darkthrone among others while their black metal is truly fast. Now comes the matter of quality. Not bad but not very good either. Certainly a band with some talent but they still have a lot to learn. One of them is to learn to write better songs since especially the arrangements are not of the required quality. The production could use some improvement but this is understandable since it is a self financed demo. You can find more info about this Italian band by visiting their official web site at www.vulvacroma.com

FISHCOMCOLLECTIVE
Vulvacroma's newest release, TYT, is again topnotch raw blackmetal! Besides two covers, which I will discuss later on, there are a couple of own inventions on the disc. The titletrack TYT, I hate trees, Don't trust Joe: one by one great songs! The vocals are somewhat distorted, yet very hollow and distinguishable. Whilst the guitars and (also distorted) bass also have this typical greasy sound, the riffs are simple but touching - a fundamental of old school blackmetal. Even though Vulvacroma was forced to work with a drumcomputer now, it is hardly noticeable! The patterns are very well programmed and the drumsound is excellent, so it doesn't bother at all. Then we get to the covers: Agent Orange (Sodom) and Freezing Moon (Mayhem). Both are played pretty tight, the only huge difference with the original is the sound of the vocals and guitar... The solo is kind of fucked up though. All in all, the covers are quite okay! After those, we get a well-composed piano-outro. Another extra included: a video of TYT! It's straight in your face and shows no mercy: footage of war, death, decay, pain, wasted nature,... Nice release, stuffed with cold and grim blackmetal!
review written by: Göran

PULL THE CHAIN
Vintage material. A kind of archive pre-Darkthrone, pre-Hades Almighty, pre-Mayhem document… as a matter of fact, in league with the early Norwegian black metal scene. Vulvacroma is a two minds project coming from Italy and surprisingly, their second demo recording (they already recorded a first promo some three years ago) doesn’t sound bad to my ears. The rhythm is generally (and unfortunately for my opinion) driven by the blistering speed of drums, the guitar parts being pasted on top. The demo’s strong song («Don’t Trust Joe») include very nice bridges and pace changes. The three songs come with two useless covers (Sodom’s «Agent Orange», the worst one and Mayhem’s «Freezing Moon», not really essential). All in all, «Tyt» is a good demo for all the nostalgic of archaic black metal recordings.
Patricia

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