It’s time to take a walk on the darker side. Picture it: Giorgio Moroder got bitten by a vampire bat and started composing menacing goth-laced EBM, then brought in a few Hieronymous Bosch demons on vox to narrate a journey through Dante’s Inferno.
Oh, my mistake! We’re actually talking about Italian darkwave artist Paolo Virdis, and his frankly terrifying new EP, Confessions of A Romantic Demon. Perched comfortably between two concrete gargoyles on the roof of a goth club along the River Styx, this is the real deal. Sounding like a soundtrack to a Giallo you’ve never seen, the music here is deeply foreboding, full unsettling synths, pounding drum machines, and howls of the damned. All the darkest emotions can be found here in this sinister hellmouth of an EP. From the opening track “You Love”, the tenebrous soundscapes are unrelenting. Continuing with “Lies”, the rhythms spiral down into a dark hypnogogic nightmare. This is driven even further with the dark whispers and resonating chimes of “Broken Inside”, coming to a crescendo with the haunted turmoil of “Only Lovers”.
“This is a journey of a romantic demon in a dark land, between betrayals, love and searching for a love that has disappeared in the darkness,” Virdis enigmatically explains. Suit up, because you’re in for a night of brimstone, fire, and a pack of hungry hell hounds.
The album was entirely self-released and self-produced by Paolo Virdis.
Confessions Of A Romantic Demon is available to stream on all major platforms. Listen below:
Based in Turin, Italy, Paolo Virdis teleports listeners to dystopia, dark atmosphere, and brooding intent. Inspired by Nine Inch Nails, Drexciya, and Kraftwerk, Virdis crafts unsettling, ferocious soundscapes rife with auditory hallucinations, scares, and euphoric dance.
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