While so many 70s dinosaurs are still chosen as most influential bands by commercial sapheads, here comes another act that has been really influential for the total underground. BLACK WIDOW. This was a progressive rock outfit from England that released a couple of albums between 1969 and 1972, all with a certain insanity backing up the songs. Their flutist / saxophonist Clive Jones is responsible for the dramatic intro of this tribute compilation and the almighty Death SS start the album with a damn heavy version of the classic 1970 tune "In Ancient Days". This melodyline must be heard, this is so haunting, that it will forever stick in your mind. After that we get away from the blasting metal of Death SS and drown inside the musical landscapes of Presence, an Italian dark / progressive outfit, female fronted and really original. They cover "Attack of the Demon", totally different from the original tune. More relaxed, spaced out!

Malombra are one of the best heavyprog outfits these days and totally shred on this version of "Tears and Whine". It is hard to describe the music to people who never listened to Black Widow before. The melodies are not usual standar lines, they have a magical feel and Malombra transcend this depth and passion into the new millennium.

Northwinds are actually a folk and doom inspired hardrock band from France and this is how their version of "Way to Power" sounds like. They add a traditional sounding passage and a doompart to the song before they let it take off. Awesome! Regular albums by Presence, Northwinds and Malombra can be found on Black Widow Records for sure. The making of those tribute albums shows how dedicated Massimo, who runs this label, is.

Ars Nova is a Japanese female trio, strongly jazz - influenced they play "Legend of Creation". Expect tons of organs, horn sections and more stuff like that. Death SS shred "Come to the Sabbat" with the hypnotic tribal "Come to the sabbat, satan is there" chorus now. What can I say, they rule! They would deserve a tribute themselves. Ha, wait and see!

The Tempter are a Spanish doom outfit and chose one of the more laid back, spiritual songs of Black Widow to cover. Their English is not free of a funny accent but this only adds some more identity to the song. They have done the mighty "Conjuration" from 1970 in a very weird version. The verses are deep, dramatic and haunting, while the chorus is jazzy, somehow slanting, very psychedelic indeed. They have made this a very original and progressive covertune! Well, what comes next? It is The Black. I have done reviews on two albums of Mario Di Donato's heavy doom / prog / psyche outfit and now they kick my ass again with this song, which is not as ceremonial and slightly bulky as their originals. Not really bulky. What can we say about The Black? It is too strange to describe, just listen to them. Imagine organ driven hardrock crossed with freestyle jazz improvisations, dark ceremonial music they play in churches, doom and psychedelicrock and you will get an impression on how The Black might be sounding. Enio Nicolini, their bassplayer has a soloproject named Acron, also reviewed above.

Ok, fasten your seatbelts, the plane takes of from Napoli Airport and gets down on Tokyo Airport again. Church of Misery, a newer Japanese Doomoutfit, a very good of course, has laid hands on "Accident" and made it a heavy, fuzzy psychedelichardrock tune with slaying guitars. This is actually from the third Black Widow LP, simply named "III". A dragging piece of music that captures the magic of the ancient days.

Another Japanese cult doom outfit these days is Eternal Elysium. The nasal vocals on the softest and most beautiful track from Black Widow's debut effort sound quite sick. The jazzy feeling is kept, only some heaviness has been added due to the use of powerful guitars here and there. The middle passage of this song has been changed a bit, not the structure itself but the way it's been played. It sounds way more psychedelic than jazzy. Well, this is also haunting.

A very peaceful track is "Floating", done by Wuthering, another Japanese outfit, this time more from the progressive genre as it seems. It is so beautiful and moving, hard to hold back your tears while listening. It takes a helluva spiritual power to compose it, but also to do a coverversion that shows both, the spirit of the original and the spirit of the band that does the coverversion. Wuthering make it as if it was nothing.

Standarte come next with "The Sun" and they are definitely not singing about he English tabloid J . Soft and gentle, just like the original, this flowery track streams out of the speakers with its peaceful, lush melodies. As I said before, if any band really sounds like 70s rock nowadays than it is Standarte. These Italians have the original spirit within their hearts, even though they are just in their 30s.

Fantasyy Factoryy is a German band with foreign vocalist, I think it's an English or Canadian dude. I liked their first two albums. They do a cool version of "King of Heart" from "Black Widow III", add a dark, spiritual introduction to this actually light and sunny track and then, off it goes! And if this guy sings "I am the King of Hearts and I bring to you happiness and emotion", well, who will contradict?

Abiogenesi is very strongly Black Widow influenced hardrock. They do the haunting "Mary Clark" from Black Widow's second album in an Italian language version, which adds even more depth and atmosphere to this mindblowing rocksong.

The end comes in form of Widow, a very obscure outfit. It is a very pop - styled version of Black Widow's megahit "Come to the Sabbath" and it somehow really comes cool! The singer of this band sounds like Black Widow's original vocalist Kip Trevor. Unfortunately this is a mystery, noone really seems to know who hides behind Widow. Well, here we are at the end of the second tribute compilation by Black Widow records and all we can say is that this awesome music needs to be heard!

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