OvO/Abisso/Supernatural Cat/2013 CD Review

  OvO  are  a  band  from  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  with  musical  style  that  combines  black  metal,  noise  rock,  doom,  death  and  thrash  metal  together  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2013  album  "Abisso"  which  was  released  by  Supernatural  Cat.

  "Harmonia  Microcosmica"  begins  with  experimental  noise  sounds  and  drones  and  after  a  minute  drum  beats  and  screams  make  their  way  into  the  song  which  also  leads  up  to  some  powerful sounding electronic  music  elements  and  after  awhile  bass  guitars  start  coming  into  the  sound  along  with  some  industrial  style  vocals.

  "Tokoloshi"  begins  with  some  avant  garde  noise  sounds  and  then  drum  beats  and  synths  along  with  some  field  recordings  and  weird  sounding  vocals  start  making  their  way  into  the  song.

  "I  Cannibali"  begins  with  some  powerful  bass  guitars,  drum  beats  and   industrial  style  sounds  which  in  return  leads  up  to  some  aggressive  sounding  vocals.

  "A  Dream  Within  A  Dream"  begins  with  some  drum  beats  and  experimental  sound s which  lead  up  to  some  high  pitched  screams  and  then  some  heavy  guitar  riffs  and  experimental  synths  make  their  way  into  the  song  and  towards  the  end  their  is  a  brief  use  of  deeper  vocals  being  utilized.

  "Aeneis"  begins  with  some  distorted  noise  effects  before  adding  in some  drum beats  and  bass guitars  and  then  the  vocals  start  kicking  in  and  they  utilize  some  weird  sounding  elements.

  "Harmonia  Microcosmica"  begins  with  drum  beats and  harsh  electronic  music  sounds  along  with  some  experimental  elements  and  after  a while  black  metal  screams  start  coming into  the  song  along  with  some  nature  sounds  and  after  awhile  the  music  starts  going  into  a  more  heavier  direction  and  towards  the  end  there  is  a  brie f use  of  spoken  word  parts  along  with  some  harsh  noise  elements.

  "Abisso"  begins  with  some  experimental  and  electronic  music  sounds  and  human  torture  sound  effects  which  also  lead  to  some  screams  and  harsh noise  elements  and  after  awhile t here  are  some  weird  sounding  female  vocals  being  utilized  along  with  some  demonic  sounding  elements.

  "Pandemonio"  begins  with  some  high  some  high  pitched  screams,  heavy  guitar and  bass riffs  along  with  soem  drums  before  going  into  a  more  avant  garde  direction.  

  "Ab  Uno"  begins  with  some  acoustic  guitars  and  a  few  seconds  alter  whispered  vocals  start coming  in  along  with  some  drum  beats  which  leads  up  to some  industrial  sounds  and  bass  guitars  and  then  female  vocals  start  making  their  presence  known.

  "Fly  Away  Demon"  begins  with  some programmed  beats and  avant  garde  experimental  sounds  and  then  the  spoken  word  and  vocals  start  coming  into  the  song  and  after  awhile  you can  hear  some  guitars  in  the  background  and  after  awhile  the  vocals  start  adding  in  some  evil  sounding  screams.

  "Flame"  begins  with  some  screams  and  avant  garde  sounds.

  Song  lyrics  cover  dark and  poetic  themes,  while  the  production h as  a  very  strong,  powerful  and  dark  sound  while  you  xan  still  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording  along  with  a  couple  of  the  songs  being  long  and  epic  in  length.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  recording from  OvO  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  experimental  music  with  elemetn s of  black  and  doom  metal,  you  should  check  out t his  album. RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Tokoloshi'  "Abisso"  "Ab  Uno"  and  "Fly  Away  Demon".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/OvO/199733020041914
http://www.ovolive.blogspot.com

oVo Interview

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?

We started a bit more than 10 years ago, as a total improv-chaos band. We’re a duo since 2002, and since then our music started to be more and more organized. We’re a touring machine, we played about 700 shows since the end of 2000, mostly in North America and Europe, but also in Israel and Mexico . We released 6 albums (3 on my label Bar La Muerte , 2 on Load, 1 on Supernatural Cat), and a lot of split, collaboration and remix albums too. Stefania Pedretti sings and plays guitar and bass, I’m Bruno Dorella and I play half a drum set (floor tom, snare, ride).



2. How would you describe your musical sound?

We notice that our music is still described as very hard to file and “not for everybody”, which is surprising for us. We think it’s pretty simple and structured. It’s heavy, with a touch of weirdness. Definitely not like anything else you can find around though. It’s somewhere between sludge, noiserock and noise. We sound “minimal” cause we’re just two, and I only play this little drum set. But we found a way to still sound pretty powerful.



3. What are some of the lyrical themes that you try to ring out with your music?

Stefania’s lyrics have no meanings in any language. Which doesn’t mean they have no meaning to her. The themes often regards our political and esthetical ideas, but we prefer to keep them a bit secret, or at least not too obvious. Some of the titles regard very personal matters. It’s because our music really comes out from our guts and hidden body parts, more than from our brains… After many years this non-language that Stefania uses almost became a language. It’s how it worked in the early days. Stefania developed a way of communication.



4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the band's name?

It’s palindrome, and, when you write it, it can look like a lot of different things: a face, two bodies hand in hand, an owl… this is very much our kind of approach to the words “meaning “ and “message” behind OvO. There are lots of potential meanings. But people have to take their time to make them up. Which is not obvious at all in this beginning of the century, when nothing is considered but superficially.



5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

We’re definitely a live band, when you see HOW we play our music, you understand a lot more about the records, too. I remember the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco as one of the most incredible venues we played at, and Supersonic in Birmingham (UK), as one of the coolest and best organized festivals. But we love to play in exotic countries, and we’ll never forget Turkey , Mexico , Israel . We like to play in Russia , too, everything is really different there. A totally different mentality, very fascinating.



6. Do you have any touring plans for the new releases?

Oh, yeah! We’re touring Europe in April, then the UK and Ireland (and a festival in Romania !) in May, and hopefully the US in October.



7. On a worldwide level how has your music been received by extreme/underground music fans?

We are quite respected in the noise scene and in the most enlightened squatters scene. Now, being on Supernatural Cat and dealing with the metal scene as well, we have a quite interesting challenge. Heavy metal is one of the genres that had more evolution in the last years, but at the same the metal audience goes to very open minded to very narrow minded attitudes. We’re already noticing many more metal kids and metal t-shirts at our shows, but we know we won’t have the whole scene on our side.



8. Are there any other projects besides this band or is this a full time line-up?

Stefania has a solo act called ?Alos , from what I know it’s the first anarcho pagan queer doom project ever, She’s also a graphic artist and a performer. I play with the instrumental band Ronin, and with a duo called Bachi Da Pietra (in Italian). I run a small record label called Bar La Muerte , too.



9. What direction do you see the music heading into in the future?

You mean music in general? Wow, this is hard to tell. The digital revolution brought a big change, which kind of killed the business, which is not necessarily a bad thing… But it’s definitely hard to keep on being a musician or a label owner nowadays. The solutions will probably be unexpected. But there’s still a lot of great music around. This won’t change. It will be different than in the past, but it won’t change.



10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music, and lso what are you listening to nowadays?

I think that electronic music is the most interesting evolution at the moment. Breakcore, dubstep, extreme electronics, you can find very inspiring stuff, and lots of ex-rockers are now playing these kinds of music, bringing a sort of “touch” that other rockers can get and appreciate. Lately, I was shocked by the live performance of King Midas Sound. You don’t get that wall of sound with rock instruments, no matter how loud you play. I listen to a lot of early music, you know, Gregorian chants and so on. African music, too. We both like Earth, Neurosis, Wolves in the Throne Room, Dark Castle …



11. Does Occultism play any role in the music?

We’re fascinated by it, especially Stefania. But we’re too anarchists too belong to any branch of it. And we’re skeptical when it regards heavy metal bands, as for a lot of them it’s just a necessary complement for their music. But we’re definitely interested in Occultism and I’m personally interested in the history of religions, from a non-religious point of view.



12. Outside of music, what are some of your interests?

We don’t have much free time out of our music and the other activities described before. When we’re not working on OvO we’re working on our other bands, or Stefania is doing workshops, drawing, or taking part to queer or political activities. I work a lot on my label too. I can’t even remember when we took our last vacations…



13. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

We recommend to go to www.supernaturalcat.com and listen to the album streaming, and get the deluxe edition of the album, an incredible piece of art with silkscreened cover and poster by Malleus, red or black vinyl, cd, live dvd, postcards with original drawings by Stefania, only 300 copies. And thanx for not having asked about Percy Shelley…

oVo/Cor Codium/Supernatural Cat Records/2011 CD Review

  oVo are a band that mixes noise, experimental music, black and doom metal together and this is a review of their 2011 album "Cor Codium" which will be released by Supenatural Cat Records.

Drums are mostly slow playing with only the occasional fast drumming and there are no blast beats present on the recording, while the noise effects are very avant garde and experimental sounding, as for the bass playing it has a very strong, distorted and powerful sound with some slow and noisy playing.

Rhythm guitars are very slow and primitive doomy/drone/noise riffs that speed up to a punk level at times mixed in with a lot of weird distorted sounds and there are little to no guitar solos or leads present on the recording.

Vocals are a mixture of high pitched noisecore and black metal screams with some occasional clean signing vocals, while the lyrics pay homage to Percy Shelly a poet from the 19th century with a touch of Gothic horror and the songs are written in a mixture of English and another language which I cant tell what it is, as for the production it has a very dark and raw feel to it.

In my opinion oVo are a very good experimental band that mixes noise, avant garde, punk, doom and black metal together, and if you are looking for something original, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Nosferatu" "Orcus" "Smelling Death Around" and "la Bestia". RECOMMENDED  BUY.

http://www.myspace.com/ovobarlamuerte