Kirlian Camera - Cold Pills (Scarlet Gate of Toxic Daybreak) (2021)

With "Cold Pills (Scarlet Gate of Toxic Daybreak)", Kirlian Camera deliver their darkest music yet. At the same time, the Italian electro-provocateurs par excellence have added a subconscious metallic vibe into their already wide-ranging sound on this massive double album. This subtle but audible shift away from more pop leaning experiments in the past, maintains the main duo's uncanny ability to compose catchy and captivating electronic hymns, but gives their new songs a more sinister spin. Yet, Kirlian Camera are foremost always themselves and this remains true for "Cold Pills" as well. While the Italians celebrate their impressive 40th anniversary, their most consistent elements are still Angelo Bergamini's trademark musical handwriting and the stunning vocals of Elena Alice Fossi. Her voice covers an amazing range of expression from the darkly seductive via the dangerously hypnotic to ethereal beauty - and every emotion in between. Kirlian Camera paint a dystopian picture on "Cold Pills" that reflects in the bleak monochrome artwork, the music, and in the lyrics. Even the ongoing pandemic has left it's traces. Multi-layered constructions as well as transcendent and subversive content have always been at the core of the art of Kirlian Camera. Their unapologetic at times outrageous ability to provoke and to hold a truth-telling mirror to the world has sparked more than one controversy in the past. Yet instead of courting provocation for it's own sake, the Italians seek an artistic course through the extraordinary contrast between the pleasing and the gloomy, the otherworldly and the dreamy, which is exactly what makes them unique in the world of music. After all these decades filled with celebrated albums, of which many are already considered modern classics, and on an artistic path that knows no rest and constantly heads towards new horizons, Kirlian Camera have again created a fascinating masterpiece with "Cold Pills" that brings their dark and mysterious aura another step closer to perfection.