PRE VIAM

Well, I have to confess that Jacula's music is not the easiest to listen and dig, nor the easiest to review, but I will do my best. As you may know, this is a project created by Antonio Bartoccetti in the latter sixties, which was followed by Antonius Rex, a new moniker though the music would be the same; now, in 2011 the name of Jacula returned in order to release "Pre Viam" through Black Widow Records, surprising us because we thought that project was already dead.

This album follows the same path of its predecessors, sharing the darkest and gothic side of progressive rock. It contains seven compositions that together make a total time of 47 minutes. The first track is "Jacula is Back", whose first minute give us an introduction to its dark, funeral gothic world. Later the organ enters and along with those strange noises, produces some kind of fear, tension. Before the third minute a delicate guitar appears contrasting with the previous sound, here, it sounds softer and even gently but it only lasts for a minute, because later the music explodes, keyboards and drums join and the sound is heavier, sorrowful and rockier. And the song continues with that rockier mood, including guitar riffs and metal-like drums.

"Pre Viam" is the longest composition of the album, reaching almost ten minutes. It starts softly with acoustic guitar, then keyboards put some nuances little by little, sharing an evident sense of uncertainty and nervousness. There is a female voice, which is sensual but scary at the same time; the synth work is wonderful because it produces almost everything, from the atmospheric tranquility to the fragile tension. The charm in Jacula's music lies in the imagination, I mean, each and every of the songs are a perfect motif to create stories, put words, sounds, images in our heads and create a parallel world.

"Blacklady Kiss" is a slow-tempo track in which as you can imagine, will listen to the voice of precisely, the Blcklady, accompanied by soft but cardiac piano notes and synth atmospheres. The second part of the song is completely different, the structure of the first one vanishes and now the rock element is present and evident with the guitar riff. "Deviens Folle" starts again with acoustic guitar, later beautiful, yet sorrowful piano notes accompany it, along with the obligatory keyboard background. Later it changes a little bit, creating once again an ambient of tension. This song is great, at first I thought it was weaker than the previous ones, but I was wrong, one has to give it a chance, listen carefully to it and then will understand what is it about.

"In Rain" shows a soft first minute with a peaceful keyboard sound, later the organ enters along with some church male vocals, it continues like this for some minutes until the song morphs once again into a rockier track, offering that mandatory guitar riff. "Godwithch" has a rain sound as background all the time, while a repetitive but addictive piano is playing and increasing its intensity little by little.

The last track of the album is "Possaction", in which we will find the funeral drums, the scary organ and sorrowful and painful voices as background, adding even more fear, accelerating our heartbeats. A great track if you are willing to have nightmares, so go and listen to it with the lights off, nice headphones and you will surely be moved by its scary sound. What a song to finish this album!

Nice comeback from Jacula, a solid album, though I stay with "In Cauda Semper?". Anyway, Pre Viam deserves 3.5 stars.

Enjoy it!