God Does Play Dice
Belladonna have been one of those bands that have been on our radar for some time now, having previously teased us with their impressive single releases. Now it is time for the teasing to end let them take us all the way with Shooting Dice With God an album full of pure pleasure. For those that have not crossed paths with Belladonna before, this Italian 'noir rock' band and Shooting Dice With God will be their fourth studio release but first via Cargo Records and should see them get the exposure they deserve here in the UK.
The first thing that makes you realise you are in for a classy treat is the album cover, taking the famous photo of Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center and subtly super imposing lead singer Luana Caraffa over Philippe.
As the tag 'noir rock' suggests, this is one dark collection of rock tracks of varying pace. But whether the track is a ballad or power hungry ripping your throat apart type of track, the entire album oozes with class throughout. Luana Caraffa's vocals are perfectly tuned to capture your imagination, mixing the dark, fragile and tortured yet delivered with power and panache and certainly know how to paint the moment.
On tracks like Karma Warrior and In My Demons Name you have a classical sounding piano repetitively playing in the background adding a real sinister edge to the track. Whereas if you love your distorted guitar being at the forefront then Ishtar Blues certainly won't let you down, impressively adding the sinister edge that the piano created.
There is a lot more production on Shooting Dice With God than earlier releases from Belladonna but they have made sure it is done well and keeping it interesting through all 11 tracks, a rare achievement. Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying "God does not play dice", well sorry Albert, Belladonna have proved that theory wrong.