vote
7.0
- Bands:
SOLAR MANTRA - Duration: 00:45:53
- Available from: 05/08/2026
- Label:
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Argonauta Records
Although the stoner certainly hasn't had the spread of grunge, in Italy it seems that everyone who has happened to listen to “Blues For The Red Sun” (as well as the records of subsequent bands such as Dozer) in recent decades have been inspired to the point of wanting to form a band, and it would be wonderful, in the near future, to be able to classify this magnificent glimpse of the underground desert that crosses the country, which includes for example the Romans Solar Mantra, born in 2016 to make their long-distance debut in 2021 with “Away”.
It took five years to give a successor to a debut whose traditional Kyussian sound emanated psychedelic and sludge influences, and “State Of Joyfull Lightness” (again published by the praiseworthy Argonauta Records) shares many characteristics with its predecessor, not least that of dedicating at least one song to crime events (in “Away” the monster of Florence, here the Sarah Scazzi case).
That said, the new album still shows growth on a compositional level, as evidenced by the light melody that decorates the classically stoner pace (almost a tamed version of “Thumb”) of one of the first preview songs, “Dynamite”, where Tommaso Santillo's qualities as a singer also emerge.
If “Avetrana” moves in a more disorderly punk rock context, almost as if it were part of the repertoire of Nick Olivieri's Mondo Generator, “Appaloosa” and “Morning Glory” are instead two electric, acidulous and persuasive ballads, with the first piece (the best of the collection, in this writer's opinion) following in the footsteps of Graveyard's “Lights Out”.
Within the setlist we notice efforts to deviate from the primary inspiration, as in “A Brand New Grave”, capable of recalling the Love Battery raids of “Far Gone” and “Straight Freak Ticket”, or in “Lucky Mia”, which takes up Dozer's melodic intuitions of “Through The Eyes Of Heatens”, even if the core of the work remains firmly anchored to the writing of Garcia and Homme (“Piñacolada”, the slow unraveling of the electric solo in “Shelter”).
The album closes with a version of “Raging River Of Fear”, from Captain Beyond's debut (1972) dutifully weighed down by lowered chords, further demonstrating the connection between the 70s and the Rancho De La Luna scene.
“State Of Joyfull Lightness” is therefore a work that confirms the good health of the Italian stoner scene and which will not fail to attract the attention of the (at this point we imagine large) group of enthusiasts of the genre. Not a masterpiece, of course, but an honest derivative album (and not in the negative sense of the term) that flows with pleasure and which we recommend listening to, perhaps together with the previous “Away”.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
