KÆRY ANN - Moonstone

Kæry Ann is the solo project of Erika Azzini (guitar and vocals), a musician from Mantua active between dark-folk and psychedelic doom. Her debut LP, "Songs Of Grace And Ruin", went somewhat unnoticed, but already hinted at an undeniable talent, now confirmed by the recent "Moonstone". The guitars are sharper and more distorted thanks to a tight-knit lineup — Francesca Papi on bass, Davide Rosa on guitar and Fabio Orticoni on drums — that abandons the more intimate approach of the debut for a rawer, more incisive and solemn sound.

The music seems to sit in a border zone between the slow but aggressive doom of Messa and the hypnotic dark of Chelsea Wolfe. Tracks like "The Road" and the single "Todeslied" stand like monoliths held up by an ethereal voice, steeped in gothic imagery and delivered with an almost fairytale-like tone. It's precisely this ambiguity that stands as one of the project's main strengths, and of the atmospheric doom on offer.

This is aggressive yet static music at the same time: it avoids accelerations and abrupt changes of direction, preferring to preserve the mood until the very end of each track, as happens in "White Dress" and "Mariner's Song". The cover of Bathory's "Shores In Flames" is very convincing, perhaps the only exception to this dynamic: its slow opening builds a macabre atmosphere, suddenly torn open by massive doom guitars.

"Moonstone" is a promising album, able to wrap the listener in thick, layered doom-gaze mists — a standout discovery for anyone following the Italian dark music scene.

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06/02/2026