Arousal - Chimaera (2025) [Hi-Res]

The debut album of this Emilian trio with a good compositional vein and a slightly cerebral inclination comes out without a label (and this already tells something). Recorded at Happenstance Studio by Marco degli Esposti, not new to ps produzioni Basically stoner, without trespassing in the excesses "atmospheric"and dusty Kuss The spatial intentions are there, but more than a free mental escape, the astral incursions of the sn The shot in general is reminiscent of some post-grunge bands such as the Amplifier, an inch away from both metal and prog, without ever slavishly adhering to either Rule. After all, the title is already quite indicative: the chimera, the hybrid mythological figure, symbol of paradox and the union of opposites.

The album therefore aims programmatically to represent an esoteric journey, a journey through the various stages of existence, which is reflected from the heptagram of the cover to the graphic characterization of the titles in the setlist, each accompanied by a planetary symbol. It starts from the larval state (Chrysalis) and ends in the descent into the Tartarus of Dissesta, before returning to the dimension of the dream (Onironauta). But beneath all this semantic scaffolding, what do we find in this Chimra The most interesting moments are probably found in the transition from guitars to Alice in Chains to Shoegaz openings in in Hermetic Catharsis, in asymmetric times and a bit of a Cage Tool, in the purest and fuzzier stoner moments compared to the less persuasive space intents. The final ballad and the beautiful closing choruses are also these Aliceinchainsian reminiscences. What remains is an erratic record, at times discontinuous, but without actually being "difficult" or needing more listening for its understanding. A proposal not totally new, but certainly original for Italy where, if you exclude the more underground underground, some intuition of this kind could be guessed at great levels only in certain passages of Verdena's Requiem. To keep an eye on Arousal; maybe in a future release they will evolve like the chimera into something even more unpronostable.