Review & Full Album Stream: 1782, 1782
[Click play above to stream 1782’s self-titled debut in its entirety. Album is out May 24 on Heavy Psych Sounds.]
If you go and look up the year 1782 in Wikipedia, you’ll find a rundown of what are considered the noteworthy events that happened across that 12 months. It’s a lot of war and governmental action, people being born, people dying — basically the stuff you’d expect when you think of who was keeping records in the 18th century. None of it is the story Italian doomers 1782 are telling however. The Roman two-piece of Marco Nieddu (vocals, guitar, bass) and Gabriele Fancellu (drums, backing vocals) are focused on the later witch trials in Europe, in particular the case of Anna Göldi, who indeed was tortured and eventually decapitated by the Swiss state in 1782 as a witch after she allegedly put needles in the milk of the child of the family for whom she was working as a maid. In 2007-2008, the Swiss government acknowledged it as a “miscarriage of justice,” so better late than never, but Göldi is considered the last witch to be executed in Switzerland if not wider Europe and her story — including an affair and child with the head of that household, who was married and had her arrested — is emblematic of the treatment of women at the time.
The two-piece don’t take an outwardly critical stance on the subject matter, but neither are they glorifying chopping ladies’ heads off, which is something of a relief. The eponymous “1782,” which appears as the last original cut of the eight inclusions ahead of closer “Celestial Voices,” a Pink Floyd cover with guest vocals and organ, is instrumental, but in “She Was a Witch” and the slow rolling subsequent track “Black Sunday,” they seem nonetheless to be passing judgment of their own on the reasoning of centuries past; fair enough given the enduring spirit of masculine entitlement to control over a woman’s body and life. More than direct commentary, though, 1782‘s self-titled debut — which runs eight songs and 39 minutes delivered through Heavy Psych Sounds with a guest appearance from label honcho Gabriele Fiori (also of Black Rainbows, Killer Boogie and The Pilgrim) on guitar for the aforementioned “She Was a Witch” — prefers to stake its claim in dense-fog doom and nodder groove.
Nieddu‘s vocals are pushed low and echoing in the spirit of true post-Electric Wizard witch doom, and as a result, the tonality surrounding feels all the more viscerally massive. The recording’s overarching rawness — the album was produced by Alfredo Carboni at RKS Studios in Sardinia — only bolsters the bleak aesthetic and makes moments like the chanting toward the end of “The Spell (Maleficium Vitae)” come across as especially resonant ahead of the wah-bass finish. The album begins, suitably enough, with the ringing bell of “Intro (…To the Church)” and moves quickly into the riff-led “Night of Draculia,” a shorter and quicker leadoff that may or may not tie into the witchy thematic but makes a rousing introduction to the sound of the record more generally, with Fancellu‘s drums thud and crash backing the thick guitar and bass tones and Nieddu‘s vocals left to cut through that swamp of low end. The later, hooky “Oh Mary” is more angular, but still something of a complement in terms of overall approach, with the vocals particularly blown out at the forefront of the mix.
That leaves the trio of “The Spell (Maleficium Vitae),” “She Was a Witch” and “Black Sunday” as the doomed heart of 1782, as well as the point of the switch between sides A and B, but the latter seems to be less of a concern for the band than a linear flow from front to back. As they push deeper into the villainous fuzz and damned melodicism, the sense of plunge is palpable, and their take on doom, well informed by the likes of Saint Vitus and of course Black Sabbath, nonetheless holds a modern edge in its willingness to cast off the trappings of frill in favor of the most straight-ahead-into-the-abyss vibe possible. Small turns here and there like Fiore‘s guitar solo in “She Was a Witch,” or the already-noted chanting in “The Spell (Maleficium Vitae),” or the organ showing up in the second half of “1782” in order to tie it more fluidly to the capping Floyd cover, do much to distinguish individual pieces, but clearly 1782 are thinking in terms of their first offering as a whole experience.
And it is their first offering. They are a new band, formed in Dec. 2018 and hit the studio this past February. Nieddu and Fancellu have worked together previously in the band Raikinas — whose vocalist, Alfredo Carboni, sings on “Celestial Voices” while Nico Sechi adds Hammond beneath — and that prior experience helps stave off some of the formative feel that might otherwise typify an effort from a group so nascent, but there’s little doubt in listening that 1782 are doing the work here of finding their sound and their place in the sphere of doom, discovering what they want to say with their sound and how they want to go about it. There are moments where the album feels disjointed, as in the jump from “Oh Mary” to “1782,” but the band make clear their foundation in these tracks, and as an initial connection, it still proves largely cohesive thanks in part to its conceptual basis and tonal consistency.
It is one to grow on, and listening to the hint at vocal harmony in the second half of “She Was a Witch,” 1782 give hints of their intention to do just that. In the meantime, their debut under the banner of obscure history gives them an immediately distinguishing place from which to grow. They’re neither strictly traditional doom nor cult rock, stoner riffing nor retro-style throwback, but there are of course elements of all of them at play and more besides. Where 1782 might lead them, I’d expect natural progression around what they’re doing here, with a mindset toward craft coming forward in kind with the clear purpose in their overall sound. They may stay this raw and they may not, but it works for them here.
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Tags: 1782, 1782 Self-titled, Heavy Psych Sounds, Italy, Rome, self-titled
