Black Reuss – Arrival

Black Reuss
Arrival
Label: Black Reuss Music
Out: December 1^st, 2023
Playing time: 56:33

The album ‘Arrival’ was released a while ago. But sometimes promoters dig up something old like this to boost sales a second time. Or the bands themselves try a second chance. That’s probably the case with Black Reuss. Although Black Reuss is not a band, it is the solo project of Italian multi-instrumentalist Maurizio Dottores, launched in 2018. Four albums have been released since 2021. And the most recent is ‘Arrival’. On this one, he collaborated with talented musicians. David Vetsch (ex The Beauty Of Gemina) and Diego Rapacchietti (Coroner) joined him on the recordings.

The album starts with the powerful song ‘Ego’. After a quiet introduction, the full instrumental power kicks in. The vocals sound in a pleasantly dark timbre. The refrain has a catchy tune character, in a positive sense. The guitar riff, underpinned by keyboards, provides an impressive heaviness. ‘Evolution’ starts with slight industrial influences before accentuated drumming kicks in. There are also epic choruses and keyboard tapestries. The slow tempo doesn’t change much. The keyboard at the beginning of ‘Grounded’ sound a little experimental. But then the calm, enchanting vocals kick in again. And again and again the riffs of deep, distorted guitars. It continues calmly and contemplatively. The short introductions have a great variety. Whether strings and guitars on “Revelation”, technical alienated keyboards on “Crystal Clear”, keys and drums on “Regression”. Maurizio Dottore’s calming dark vocals always follow, accompanied by equally calm but powerful drums and hard riffs. Now and again, clear guitar sounds can also be heard. Musically, you can also recognise a lot of variety and you can always sing along very quickly. But then ‘Loner’ surprises, at least the introduction sounds optimistic and is played faster. But after that, gloom dominates again. Some passages with distorted guitars and the choruses are a bit of a contrast. And even on “Soul Awakening” with Anna Murphy (ex. Eluveitie, Cellar Darling) as a duet partner and “Keen Creation”, not much has changed in terms of the basic stylistic direction, but the music has. Only ‘Resolution’ sounds a little more optimistic. Faster riffs are also used here. The vocals also alternate between calm, sombre and optimistically faster.

There were two reasons why I thought long and hard about writing a review of ‘Arrival’. Firstly, because the release date was a while ago. Secondly, because Dark Rock / Gothic Rock is not necessarily my favourite music genre. But in the end, I was won over by the quality, the musical variety and the rich sound over long stretches. In addition, there are often hard-hitting riffs that provide an excursion into Metal realms.

Black Reuss – Evolution: https://youtu.be/dtJn5LzqcBo?si=5LA_ePyCdCBFVbdS

Lineup:

Maurizio Dottores – Vocals, All instruments
David Vetsch – Bass
Diego Rapacchietti – Drums

Track list:

• Ego
• Evolution
• Grounded
• Revelation
• Crystal Clear
• Regression II
• Loner
• Soul Awakening
• Resolution
• Keen Creation