Dea Marica is a doom project by Riccardo Veronese, an English musician despite the fact that his name and surname clearly suggest an Italian origin. The tricolor component is, however, well present in this work since the guitarist-bassist has availed himself of the collaboration of singer Roberto Mura and drummer Marco Z. of the Sardinian Urna; moreover, the same moniker chosen refers to the divinity worshipped in antiquity by the Romans and, of that cult, several vestiges still remain in addition to the remains of a temple erected on the banks of the Garigliano. But beyond the geographic location of the band, what is of most interest is the quality of the music proposed, namely a death doom that ends up being complementary to both the other bands involving Veronese, Gallow God and Aphonic Threnody (where the full line-up of Dea Marica is present), and Urna themselves. The peculiarity of Curse Of The Haunted is precisely that it does not rest on an overly defined stylistic standard in the doom sphere, showing instead the different faces of the genre, starting with the traditional one of opener The Tower, obsequious to the dictates of Black Sabbath and especially Candlemass, but clearly revised with the sensibility of a musician of more extreme extraction. The Last Goodbye presents a more canonical death doom, although Roberto Mura uses a very evocative clean vocal, while Skeletons And Blind Skulls approaches funeral territories by moving with a slowness decidedly superior to that adopted in the rest of the record. If Doom Bar still manifests different nuances, revealing itself as one of the best tracks ever and exhibiting more aggression, Edge Of Darkness and Dead And Damned return to ploughing more traditional territories, but it is the following Don’t Pray For Them that stands out as one of the high points of the album seen, thanks to melodies and mournful vocals that accompany the track to its end. Concluding the work we find Lady Greensleeves, that is, the doom-sounding rendition of the famous song of the British tradition dating back to the 16th century (impossible that you have never heard it even in passing, and after a few notes you will undoubtedly recognize it): an experiment not without risks but undoubtedly successful. Curse Of The Haunted, despite its duration of about an hour, turns out to be absolutely enjoyable even if it is absolutely necessary to listen to it several times in order to be able to fully grasp its essence: I myself after the first approaches had not found it particularly convincing, but it was a strong feeling that it deserved a due deepening in order to savor its contents in a fulfilled way. After all, we are talking about a record that does not find its strength in atmospheric passages or easy to grip, but rather in its sober essentiality that is a typical characteristic of the British doom school; in fact, one can find, at times, common traits not only with the inescapable, My Dying Bride, but also with several formations that have come to the fore in recent years such as The Prophecy, My Silent Wake and The Drowning. But, beyond all considerations, Curse Of The Haunted, which comes only a year after the debut, shows the goodness of the choice made by Riccardo Veronese, who, availing himself of the valuable work of the two Italian musicians at his side, has shown himself capable of bringing to the fore a new name capable of having its say within a doom scene in great ferment.

2013 – Weird Truth Productions