Antonius Rex - Zora

(CD 1977/2009, 47:08, Black Widow)

The tracks:
  1- The Gnome(6:16)
  2- Necromancer(6:30)
  3- Spiritualist Seance(10:07)
  4- Zora(7:42)
  5- Morte al Potere(6:12)

Antonius Rex Website        samples        Black Widow Records


The first thing you notice, whilst listening to this record, is a distinct seventies sound. This is not that strange if you know that Zora is the re-release of a now 33 year old record. This record is rumoured to be a legendary occult album by the Italian guitar player Antonio Bartoccetti. As often is the case, after listening to this album it turned out to be a lot less legendary than expected or even hoped for. Zora consists mainly of wobbly compositions with simplistic melodies and in general bad singing: most of the time out of tune and with a heavy Italian accent. In fact, it’s difficult to discover a decent tune except when there are rip offs of better known musicians like Jean Michel Jarre or even Grobschnitt, but unfortunately these rip offs only last a minute. I have a rule: if the album wasn’t a success at the time it was originally released, it will not be a success now. Sometimes this rule is violated which provides us with a pleasant surprise, but this is certainly not the case here with Antonius Rex.

*André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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