OVO – Gemma

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  EGG
• Duration: 00:38:49
• Available from: 03/10/2025
• Label:

• Artoffact Records

Stefania Pedretti and Bruno Dorella are more than just a musical partnership: with OvO they have been carrying out one of the freest experiences in the experimental field for a quarter of a century, moving with ease between metal, doom, industrial and noise rock.
“Gemma”, the second album under the aegis of the Canadian Artoffact Records, does not retreat an inch in terms of research, confirming that the giant behind the minimal drums – however pounded like a bloodthirsty blacksmith – and the priestess with the infernal uvula have no limits when it comes to making things shine gems disturbing and disturbing sounds.

The title track starts in drum'n'bass territories, tinged with horror, on which an almost black metal texture is superimposed, while the metals that follow one another in the titles of the album push more on the industrial component: “Stagno” is hypnotic, obsessive and violent, “Iridio” chooses a more direct and noisy formula, “Cobalto” is almost dance – without losing sight of the more malignant and the inevitable outburst based on guitar and drums – while finally “Rame” finds more dilated and evanescent openings.
We would like to use terms such as 'international', or 'classical', for certain proposed solutions or references, but it would be banal compared to the undeniable relevance of OvO in the scene, well beyond the Italian borders. A fact testified by yet another precious collaboration: in “Opale”, a song that obsessively swirls between electronic and industrial, alternating a paroxysmal vocal line with a more ethereal, spine-chilling duet, it's the turn of Lord Spikehaert, former member of the Kenyan noise/grindcore band Duma; Paige A. Flash – parsley of the New York noise/alternative scene – instead contributes to the charm of “Diamante”: a perverse and malignant blues that soon melts into something not too far from a cruel esoteric ritual.
In the rest of the album, far from choosing comfortable paths, Bruno and Stefania keep the bar straight with incessant rhythms or tearing drones, who however also know how to find unusual melodic outbursts (“Neon”, “Fossile”).

It's difficult to say before listening what to expect from an OvO album, yet at the same time, every time we find ourselves inside exactly – 'only', we dare say almost provocatively – what we hoped to hear: something chaotic yet perfectly calibrated, unpredictable and yet reassuring… like the best horror stories.