Blax – ‘Certesia’

Gothic Rock

Independent Release

Released – Early 2025

Blax are Italian and were one of the bands that caught my eyes and ears on my visit to Masters Of Rock last year. They played early on the main stage to a fast-gathering crowd, having played the second the year before, and they impressed greatly. They have a fine mix of gothic based 80’s heavy rock which can sometimes get punky and proggy. Here’s their second album which also have industrial and alternative undertones.

Opener ‘Blax’ starts with a beautiful classical piano before they bring a chugging riff and pounding rhythm plus some bright synths before singer Giampaolo Polidoro comes on like Alice Cooper with a sneering creepy vocal. There are some fine guitar lines from both Marco Fanella and Emil Dellatonio towards the end. A choppy riff similar to Scorpions ‘Big City Nights’ introduces ‘Mr Graceful’ which is a proper banger and bound to be a live favourite then ‘Doctor Love’ gets a bit darker on a refrain similar to ‘Heavens On Fire’ by Kiss. ‘All Saints In Hell’ is big, bold and epic sounding and another bound to get a crowd going. The organ is brought out to great effect on the sinister ‘King Of The Café’ before the 80’s sounding synth introduces the jagged ‘Lady Music’ before an angular riff and some fine fretwork gets ‘Misery Of The Cross’ going. It’s a stop-start thing that continues the dark sinister theme. Modern industrial synths start ‘Philophobia’ then Giulia’s rock steady bass line leads the way before they go semi ballad on the dark rock of ‘Desideria’. Final track ‘Rockaphilia’ is a bit more rock n roll with a real Alice Cooper feel.

This is a fine second effort and yeah there might be a few riffs and melodies that sound very familiar but that doesn’t take anything away from the songs or the performances. I hope to see Blax on the road again to see how some of these songs translate to the stage – I reckon they will be great fun.

Track List –

Blax

Mr Graceful

Doctor Love

All Saints In Hell

King Of The Café

Lady Music

Misery Of The Cross

Philophobia

Desideria

Rockaphilia