In 2022, I reviewed the debut album from Sicilian band, Silver Nightmares, Apocalypsis. You can read my review by clicking on the button below
I said there that it promised much for the future, and the inexorable passage of time now enables us to test that statement by considering their 2025 EP, Roxy Passion, the title track of which is featured on my Progzilla Radio show this forthcoming Saturday (22nd March 2025) commencing 16:00 UK GMT.
The band are Alessio Maddaloni on drums; Gabriele Taormina playing keyboards; Gabriele Esposito on bass guitar; and Diego La Mantia on guitars. Further, they have obtained the services of Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Gӧran Edman.
On this, we can enjoy two brand new tracks, alongside a revisited version of the single, The Blue Light of a Star. The EP will be available from March 31st on all digital platforms.
Okay, let’s discuss it. We open with Roxy Passion itself, and we have a video embedded below for you to enjoy. It is a wonderful slab of classic rock and takes me back to those heady days of the late 1970’s when I first heard the likes of Burn or Lovehunter. Sex, drinks, smokes, and rock n’roll! La Mantia provides a killer guitar solo, and the lot of them are as tight a band as I love to hear. More than anything, this makes me happy, remembering that sometimes it is enough to indulge in such thoughts as to wash away much of the gloom that seems to surround us permanently these days.
Cats on the Run follows with a stormy start and a screaming mog before swirling synths announce the song, a complex rhythm section noticeable. As we move past the opening minute, there is a distinctly funky feel to the track as if the felines are on the march down the street in perfect rhythmic harmony. The bass is crunching, a massive noise created by Esposito, the guitar riffs singing the feline tale, the soundscapes created huge. I really like this track, a strong contender for the website’s “instrumental of 2025” award. Playful and the sound of a band thoroughly enjoying their craft.
The Blue Light of a Star from Apocalypsis was a superb piece of music, a tale of illicit love in the Deep South and the hangman awaiting the outcome. Edman returns to vocal duties and let me tell you that this starkly emotional reworking is worth the price of the EP on its own, Edman providing for a deeply moving blues-infused vocal, quite astounding as a performance, the piano, vocal harmonies, effects filling the senses. Quite exceptional.
Lastly, we have a “space version” of The Blue Light, an interesting slab of psychedelia fused with electronica and heavy rock, the drums of Maddaloni especially crunching, Taormina providing a picturesque wall of sound, the brief guitar solo of La Mantia bursting with life.
Roxy Passion is a superb EP and all I can really say in conclusion is that I really hope the full album is not too far away. Bring it on!