VANEXA – Back From The Ruins

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8.5

• Bands:
  VANEXA
• Duration: 00:31:17
• Available since: 1988
• Label:

• Minotaur Records

Streaming not yet available

How could we start 2026 in the best possible way if not by dusting off what – in our opinion – is one of the most valid, qualitatively high gems and part of a submerged history that the early (but no longer newborn) heavy movement gave birth to? The group in question, theoretically, we should all know: being born in 1979 and, albeit with several breaks in between, still active and performing live today, makes it one of the first heavy metal bands to arise in Italy, ex aequo with Unreal Terror, Vanadium and the Neapolitans Strike, surpassed only by the even more legendary Strana Officina and the controversial Death SS.
We are talking about the Savonese of Vanexa origin, whose second album “Back From The Ruins” from 1988 we are discussing here, and endowed, even if we limit ourselves to the artwork depicting ruins of a presumed Hellenic temple, of an ancient charm which, contemplated nowadays, seems to echo from an indefinite place and time, dispersed in the memory of those who were part of that scene.
The formation of the time was composed of the co-founder and 'Italian-style' guitar hero Roberto Merlone, Sergio Pagnacco (bass) and the other co-founder Silvano Bottari (drums), still the only ones left of the historical nucleus today, and finally, discovered thanks to an advertisement in the weekly magazine Ciao 2001, Marco “Spino” Spinelli on vocals, successor to Alfio Vitanza who would later become known for his performances on drums in prog bands such as Latte e Miele and following important local singer-songwriters. We are talking about years in which playing heavy metal in Italy was not a simple matter, we are talking about a musical genre still developing in England, where it was born and raised, imagine how well it was known and understood in a nation accustomed to very different musical coordinates; therefore, if today we have a scene, however shaky and shabby, we must also above all thank the pioneers mentioned above (and many others) who were the first to understand the phenomenon of the “land of heavy metal rock” and imported it to us.

Going into more detail, after the immature self-titled debut recorded for Durium, our band moved to Marco Melzi's Minotauro Records, famous partner of Paul Chain and the first Death SS, and recorded what would turn out to be their masterpiece.
The ideas proposed are those of the NWOBHM, but, as mentioned above, it could not have been otherwise; it's true that we are in 1988, and thrash has exploded for some time here too, thanks to the Bulldozer/Necrodeath/Schizo triad, but for Vanexa and company of the previous generation there are no other labels: heavy metal IS the NWOBHM, no second or third ways can be contemplated. This is orthodoxy, and must be accepted as such.
Starting from the opener “Midnight Wolves” one cannot help but notice the compositional leap forward compared to the previous work, in which in some episodes the identification with the Tygers Of Pan Tang was at the limit of cloning (we are talking about “Metal City Rockers”, for example), or where some passages were openly stolen from other famous songs (“Rainbow In The Night” manages to effortlessly copy the riffs of “Atomic Punk” by Van Halen and “See The Light Shining” by Saxon, and the result is also excellent!); the group has grown and you can see it from the variations on the theme in the compositions themselves, from the clean passages as an interlude to the tempo changes, to the creation of solid melodies that aren't 'listen and throw away', nothing complicated but tricks that allow this LP to be remembered after all these years.
The aforementioned “Midnight Wolves” and “Bloodmoney” flow like a pleasure, when we encounter the first real highlight of the work, the hard melodic “Creation”: Spinelli's voice is here in the annals of Italian metal, capable of reaching important high notes, as well as Merlone's splendid solo work and his riffs, distorted and clean, full of tension and exciting like other more famous names. We then come to “It's Over”, already published in 1985 for the Reflex Records compilation, “Metallo Italia”, a song whose strengths are in its central part, since if in the first the stylistic features are those of naked and pure classic metal, later the rhythms relax and, once again, the guitarist and mastermind gives free rein to his technical skills; it is no coincidence that, at the end of “Back From The Ruins”, he turns out to be the star, the one who had the greatest impact on the excellent final result.
“Hanged Man” begins with a riff priestian, but it's just a flash in the pan; the atmosphere darkens quickly, the guitars become almost eerie, the speed gives way to a rarefied air, there is also a hint of scream from the singer (we believe that the Minotauro boss had a significant impact on this 'dark' turning point, totally absent before then). The pinnacle of the album is represented by “Night Rain On The Ruins”, a power ballad which, if it had been written by Queensryche or whoever on their behalf, we would all be cheering and including in the various “top…” charts, and this unfortunately applies to many Italian songs of those years (did anyone say “Autostrada Dei Sogni”, “Indios” or “No One's Cryin'”?); there is simply not a note out of place, the climax is reached with the entrance after 2.30 minutes of Giorgio Pagnacco's carpet of keyboards, who appears as a guest, and here any other comment would appear useless.
We conclude, after the least successful of the lot “We All Will Die”, with the other great and classic piece by the group “Hiroshima”, of which there is also an Italian version recorded in 1980: pure heavy in your face narrating the exploits of Enola Gay on 06/08/1945, where the Pagnacco-Bottari rhythm section does not retreat an inch and rolls out endless red carpets for voice and guitar, the prima donnas which best seal this final bombardment.

Recorded in the Stone Castle Studios in Carimate (CO), and dutifully reissued in 2006 with the addition of further live tracks from the Teatro Verdi in Genoa in 1984, “Back From The Ruins” will remain a wonderful but isolated episode in the Ligurians' discography; to listen to something new they had to wait a good six years, but “Against The Sun”, although a valid work and not devoid of ideas (we mention here only an elegant song like “Dark Lady”), also thanks to the change of singer in favor of Roberto Tiranti, was too detached a result, the resulting sound completely distorted the heavy beating heart of the group, which within a year could do nothing but disband.
The Vanexa still live today, or rather, they survive, proudly out of fashion, and you can see them every now and then in some small venue on our peninsula; they composed other material, of course, but for them it is undeniable to be remembered for that handful of primordial songs that earned them, initially, the appearance as headliner at the Rock in a Hard Place Fest in Certaldo in 1983, perhaps the very first Italian heavy metal event, and subsequently eternal glory with this release which is worth dusting off every now and then, to remember the origins of the purest Italian steel.