Your new favorite rock band could be from halfway around the world.
Bought any music yet in 2020?
Check out Viridian, the latest release from Italian symphonic metal band Temperance.
Comprised of no less than three vocalists in each song (harmonizing beautifully), including an especially strong female vocalist (one of the best I’ve heard in rock music in years), the 5th album from Temperance (Viridian) is equal parts indescribable and undeniable—offering driving guitars, infectious, modern rock melodies and anthemic lyrics that implore the urgency of climate change—and the collective hope to change. It’s all too real, and it’s so right now.
Viridian opens with an ominous flare for the future with “Mission Impossible”—a pulsating and bombastic rocker set to the pulsating drums of Alfonso Mocerino—a song that one of Temperance’s vocalists Michele Guaitoli described in a preview video as being inspired by the classic movie of the same name. “Something’s gone wrong,” the lyrics begin—a tonality reflective of the lyrical content and emotional expanse to come on this amazing album.
With persistent themes of loss, resiliency and environmentalism (‘viridian’ is green, and is thought to symbolize “the color of life”), Temperance writes lyrics throughout Viridian that are poetic, poignant and exhilarating. “Now it’s time to give voice to the pain of my broken heart,” the stunningly talented female vocalist of Temperance Alessia Scolletti belts out on “I Am The Fire,” an adrenaline-inducing track that defines incredible lyricism—with a jaw-dropping YouTube video that is every bit the symphonic metal version of a motivational poster. And, it just feels good to read the lyrics as they spill across the imagery of twirling fire batons and spiraling ashes.
Other highlights of the album include the title track, “Viridian” as the talented guitar stylings of Marco Pastorino and bass guitar crafting of Luca Negro ascend urgently into a magnificent chorus. “Viridian, your warmest energy!” the triad of vocalists passionately cry out in an intoxicating blend of both beauty and desperation. In fact, for me, with each listen, it gets harder and harder to tell if the lyrics in these songs are about a friend, or, if they are about the Earth.
And it is exactly in that blurred meaning, that the album achieves its greatest success: Setting a tone of harmony between mother nature and the listener—an accord between both the blue of despair and the green of hope and new life.
In no song is this more evident than in “Gaia,” a tender and apologetic lullaby that begs forgiveness, recognizing “we were meant to make you rise.” And whether the ‘you’ in the song speaks of Gaia (a being, of some sort) or Gaia (the Earth) is a bottomless wonder that further connects the Earth to the complexity of human spirit, and the sincere desire to change for the right, out of hope that “tomorrow will spare our souls.”
But for all the album’s complexity, perhaps it’s the organic simplicity of Viridian’s closing track, “Catch The Dream,” that is a most fitting and fantastic ending for the opus. Framed largely in handclaps and village tribal-esque harmonizing, the band implores “May tomorrow come, to catch the dream, our voices will begin to sing!” The simplistic radiance of the song, set amidst the preceeding backdrop of some of the best symphonic prog-metal in years—is perhaps the point of the album: That when things go wrong, perhaps they go right again when we are willing to go back to where they start.
For anyone looking for a great start to their 2020 music collection, Viridian by Temperance is indeed a great start. This album was my start with them, and the way I felt after listening, it’s only the beginning.
https://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/store/search/?q=temperance
MavStar 