Violet Blend – Demons

Violet Blend
Demons
Eclipse Records
Out: April 01^st, 2022
Playing time: 40:00

Violet Blend are an Italian alternative metal band, featuring extraordinary vocals, rich sonic power, and unbridled energy.

That’s how you can read. In the press release. The band was founded by singer and pianist Giada Celeste Chelli in Florence (Italy) in 2014. Michel Agostini (drums), Ferruccio Baroni (bass) and Daniele Cristellon (guitar) soon joined the band. This line-up has remained until today. Quite an impressive continuity. They were live support for various well-known bands, such as Radiohead, Garbage, Chris Slade (AC/DC), Vinnie Moore (Alice Cooper). That already sounds impressive. After the EP “Venus”, released in the founding year, four years passed until the debut album “White Mask” was released. Another four years later, the successor “Demons” is finished.

Violet Blend start the album with the single “Rock DJ”. With loud riffs. And the lyrics “It’s only Rock’n’Roll” are a clear statement. Singer Giada Celeste Chelli can convince with her powerful voice. And there is a great guitar solo. Unfortunately, this song is the shortest of the whole album with only 2:20. The next song title “He Said He Was Pregnant” reads with a wink. Here, too, the riffs dominate and the drums stomp the beat. “Among All These Fools” is a bit quieter, although the drums and riffs dominate here as well. The chorus invites you to sing along. I don’t believe the blonde singer’s song title “I’m Only Happy When I’m Drunk”. But there are certainly enough people for whom that is true. So one can certainly take up this theme. In “Pray”, hectic guitars underpin the hard riffs. The chorus is again easy to sing along with. And then comes the real highlight. The canzone “La Donna e Mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto, musically rearranged by the singer. Of course Giada is no Luciano Pavarotti, but I like this new interpretation very much. Besides this, there are two more songs in the band’s mother tongue (“Muoio in un Bicchiere”, “In Mezzo ai Folli”), although these are own compositions. Thus, “Muoio in un Bicchiere” is a beautiful ballad. The blonde singer’s voice sounds downright vulnerable here. Alternating between piano and hard riffs, “Smell Like The Hospitals” starts. A semi-ballad, in which quiet sections alternate with midtempo parts. With “A Part Of Me” the Italians really rock off again. And the already mentioned “In Mezzo ai Folli” closes the album. For the last time, Daniele Cristellon can shine with his riffs and solos.

Violet Blend bring a lot of freshness to the Rock and Metal scene. First and foremost, Giada Celeste Chelli’s singing is convincing. So beautifully retro, somehow reminiscent of the great times of Italian Rock and Pop music of the eighties.  She thus continues the traditions of Gianna Nannini or Eros Ramazotti, but in a musically somewhat different way. Any of the songs on the album would have been a better alternative to last year’s ESC winning song, in my view.

Violet Blend – Rock DJ: https://youtu.be/CYYQMPoWbJ8

Lineup:

Giada Celeste Chelli – Lead Vocals, Piano, Orchestration
Daniele Cristellon – Guitars
Ferruccio Baroni – Bass
Michel Agostini – Drums, Vocals

Track list:

• Rock DJ
• He Said He Was Pregnant
• Among All These Fools
• I’m Only Happy When I’m Drunk
• Need
• Morning
• Pray
• La Donna Mobile
• Earth
• Muoio in un Bicchiere
• Smell Like The Hospitals
• A Part Of Me
• In Mezzo ai Folli