From the deep down trenches of the Italian Metal scene, I found this one lying around, fairly new and seems inviting enough to explore. At first glance it seemed rather obscure but eventually it ended up being even traditionalized than I thought beforehand. CAMERA OSCURA, freely translated as the Dark Room, actually found that bit of light within my soul, sufficient for me to like their musical entity and appreciate their strive to become greater than the underground they are a part of. Named "_Killing Valentine" expressed a scent of lavishing pessimism, yet there were doubts especially with the addition of "_" right before the first word of the title, kind of made me think what was it all about. So there I was, waiting for the punch line and for a mysterious death of a man or simply love.

Throughout the record, I could take pleasure of lead guitarist's Alessio Il Catti guitaring style. Even though it showed the possibility that he might have improvised while recording without preparing these Metal meets Rock solos prior to the session, he is gifted. Luca Nasetti, till now honestly, is a silent riddle, a vocalist that has the voice minus the commanding presence within the recording. I might blame it on the engineer that worked on it, yet it is hard to notice that he might be slightly tender and trying to be harsher where he doesn't need to. Nevertheless, Nasetti's vocal style is one of the reasons for the band's impressive imagery.

The band, in overall, appeared to have decided to make it easier for the Metal fan, letting him / her in between their blackened angelic wings with the gratifying taste of old school Metal dishes. Whether brandishing old METALLICA sort of Thrash / Speed Metal carved on "Hero's Last Fight". Practicing traditional Metal twitches al'a IRON MAIDEN mighty featuring on "Men Who Hate Women" and right before the Progressive Metal era of FATES WARNING displayed on "Insomnia". Wildly possessed by the darkened SONATA ARCTICA crisp laid down on "Chance" and "Soul Damned" or merely enjoying the sparkle of greasy hits that might soap you with SCORPIONS romanticism, as I experienced on the Italian sung "Angel Christ", or the jumpy rockin' turnovers of AC/DC. A mish mash of old blend admiration looks like it, but nothing overly complicated, yet empowered by a variety of atmospheric elements to keep the tunes up the notch above the average foreseen and relatively composed Heavy Metal album.

The unison of old school Metal implementations makes this record quite powerful. Although it sounded like a low budget recording, and there were aspects that the band could have done without like flanger effects and sorts, the songs themselves are everlasting and memorable. Try to get a hold of this one, and mind the sound by focusing on the material.