{"id":228928,"date":"2025-10-27T22:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/228928\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:02:08","slug":"blizaro-light-and-desolation-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/228928\/","title":{"rendered":"Blizaro \u2013 Light and Desolation Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"What do you get when you combine old school doom with older school horror movie soundtracks? John Gallo of Orodruin<\/a> asked this question roughly twenty years ago, and the answer became known as Blizaro. Despite the years of experience accumulated, the discography of this mostly solo project is quite brief; Light and Desolation is only Blizaro\u2018s third full-length. Time, ever the unfair mistress, treats everyone quite differently. Some artists have a lot to re-learn, others are able to pick up right where they left off. With nine years having passed since their previous album, how has the hourglass treated the intriguing and slightly bizarre concept of Blizaro?<\/p>\n

It becomes immediately apparent that Blizaro takes heavy influence from the \u201870s and \u201880s. After a short melodramatic intro sets the stage, the Candlemassive and Troublesome hammer of doom descends. John Gallo\u2019s wonderful guitar tone and playing style echo as much old Sabbath and \u201870s Judas Priest (\u201cInternal Chasm\u201d) as it does traditional doom, and the part-NWoBHM lead guitars (\u201cGlare of Light and Desolation\u201d) bring light and energy into the formula. The gloomy but heavy sound is complemented by Gallo\u2019s eerie and dramatic vocals. His Ozzy-coded, blue-collar delivery fits the mold well, and good usage of layers adds extra oomph to an already good performance. But Light and Desolation isn\u2019t just about the metal world. Horror-themed suspense and Tangerine Dream-touched synthesizers (\u201cSentenced Pathways\u201d) color much of the album\u2019s material both on the foreground and in the background. These individual elements already sound good on their lonesome but create spectacular hooks and crescendos when working in unison (\u201cSilver Tower,\u201d \u201cLightning Strikes Back\u201d).<\/p>\n

\ufeffLight and Desolation by Blizaro<\/a><\/p>\n

Crucially, Blizaro\u2019s songwriting is both authentic and fresh, combining many old inspirations into newer ideas. Imitation is flattery, but it can only take you so far without understanding how your influences formed their sound in the first place. And throughout Light and Desolation, Gallo showcases a wealth of knowledge in not only his influences but also their various heroes and followers. Whether it\u2019s the Iron Maiden pyrotechnics at the start of \u201cInternal Chasm\u201d or the \u201870s prog rock bounce of \u201cLucifer\u2019s Lament,\u201d Light and Desolation keeps throwing new curveballs to switch up its songwriting mojo. Not all of it is created equal, as some of the transitions in the aforementioned feel jarring, but most of the resulting breadth ends up a net positive. This wouldn\u2019t be half the album it is without its cinematic atmosphere tying it all together. Sword-swinging closer \u201cWarriors of the New Lands\u201d is a culmination of Blizaro\u2019s heavy metal, horror atmosphere, and space synth tendencies alike. It\u2019s not just a throwback sound\u2014it\u2019s a unique blend of them.<\/p>\n

\"\"On top of Light and Desolation being written like a lost relic, it also sounds the part. The mix allows all instruments room to shine and breathe, the crashing of cymbals in particular being a pleasure to listen to. The fuzzy production makes for a surprisingly warm album despite its cold and desolate demeanor, proving once again that heaviness does not require overcompression. Some of it might even sound a bit too ancient for my tastes, and it certainly took some getting used to. The vocals aren\u2019t perfect either, occasionally stumbling during the latter half of the album. But what Blizaro sometimes lacks in consistency, they make up for in pure character and charisma. I\u2019ve had trouble getting \u201cLightning Strikes Back\u201d out of my head ever since first hearing the song, and it\u2019s far from the only memorable moment here.<\/p>\n

Light and Desolation is another strong success in a recent streak<\/a> of distantly similar but ultimately unrelated nods to the old school<\/a>. Blizaro continues putting their own spin on classic heavy and doom metal with elements of Italian horror ambience and olde prog synths from outer space. Aside from some minor vocal and songwriting slip-ups, it\u2019s a majorly fun and replayable package with many layers to uncover. John Gallo\u2019s busy schedule makes his writing speed tend towards the George R.R. Martin end of things, but the wait was well worth it. Here\u2019s hoping there are more chapters of this\u2014or even stronger\u2014quality in the book of Blizaro yet to come!<\/p>\n

Rating: Very Good
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb\/s CBR MP3
Label: Nameless Grave Records<\/a>
Website: Bandcamp<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: September 26th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What do you get when you combine old school doom with older school horror movie soundtracks? John Gallo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2325,19439,6447,2775,97349,22285,6448,96,11652,13565,55360,97350,128,97351,97352,13573,263,129,55182,97353,97354,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-228928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-2325","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-american-metal","11":"tag-black-sabbath","12":"tag-blizaro","13":"tag-candlemass","14":"tag-doom-metal","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-heavy-metal","17":"tag-iron-maiden","18":"tag-judas-priest","19":"tag-light-and-desolation","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-nameless-grave-records","22":"tag-orodruin","23":"tag-progressive-rock","24":"tag-review","25":"tag-reviews","26":"tag-sep25","27":"tag-tangerine-dream","28":"tag-trouble","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}