Klimt 1918 – Undressed Momento (2003)

Unvinyl #3

The crossover between metal and new wave goes back to the late ’80s/early ’90s, when forward-thinking bands like Celtic Frost and Anacrusis not only covered artists such as Wall Of Voodoo and New Model Army, but also quietly absorbed those influences into their sound.

It wasn’t until the mid-’90s, however, that this crossover became increasingly common, especially among European acts rooted in the more extreme subgenres: death metal, gothic metal, and the like. Pyogenesis had already begun flirting with post-punk elements on their 1994 album ‘Sweet X-Rated Nothing’, but the first real game-changer arrived in 1996 with Novembre’s ‘Arte Novecento’, which distilled those twin influences into a coherent, refined style. The tracklist even included a version of ‘Stripped’, years before Depeche Mode covers became routine in metal. Katatonia would take a similar route with 1998’s ‘Discouraged Ones’, while other bands folded in electronic or synthpop soundscapes to various degrees, like Moonspell with ‘Sin/Pecado’, or Paradise Lost with ‘Host’.

This branching out produced some excellent albums and even a few minor masterpieces, though the reception wasn’t always warm, and not every fanbase welcomed the shift. Within a few years, the wave had receded: either because the bands moved forward into yet another direction, or because they backtracked to avoid further backlash. By 2003, when Italian outfit Klimt 1918 released their first full-length ‘Undressed Momento’ (after debuting with a self-released EP a couple of years earlier), that strain of wave-infatuation was essentially dead and forgotten. Yet they delivered one of the most striking albums ever to come out of that boundary-defying era.

It’s basically a guitar-oriented new wave album with the songs injected with metal distortion and double-bass drum. Think the aforementioned ‘Arte Novecento’ – indeed the album was produced by then-Novembre members Giuseppe Orlando and Max Pagliuso – and ‘Discouraged Ones’ crossed with The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’ and a general ’80s pop feel. “We all feel deeply influenced by the new wave”, singer Marco Soellner told me in an interview back then. “It’s the music that anyone born in the ’70s, like us, grew up with. Bands like Ultravox, The Smiths, The Cure, Tears For Fears, U2, and Duran Duran were all over the radio and TV back then. For me, it was completely natural to pour those influences into our songs. Pop music of that era was very straightforward and minimal; it came out of post-punk and stood at the opposite edge of the sophisticated, progressive tradition of the ’70s. In just a few lines, it said everything, and did so in the most effective way possible. That direct, no-frills songwriting is exactly the way Klimt 1918 approach it too”.

The arpeggios and the melodies in tunes like ‘Pale Song’ or ‘Parade Of Adolescence’ sound familiar and fresh at the same time, because they draw on soundscapes we already know, while arranging them in a way that feels quietly unexpected. Every note on the album feels melancholic and nostalgic, something the singer indeed confirmed: “‘Undressed Momento’ is, above all, an album born of our nostalgia. Memories that suddenly, even violently, resurface when we read an old letter or look at faded pictures from older times. Melancholy is a very specific, defining state of mind, and it often ends up carrying only negative connotations. Our music, on the other hand, is driven by mood and contrasts, and it even speaks to the joy of being alive. Klimt 1918 found, in the myth of lost adolescence, the right balance between a sense of lightness and a profound nostalgia. ‘Undressed Momento’ therefore resembles the diaries we used to fill in school with bits of ourselves: photos, drawings, thoughts, poems… Desires turned into ink that now remind us how much loneliness and innocence used to linger in our fragile younger selves”.

But for all its wistfulness, ‘Undressed Momento’ isn’t just confined to nostalgia and melancholy. For example, there’s a soft brightness running through pieces like ‘Naif Watercolour’, while the closing ‘Stalingrad Theme’ erupts with fury and resolve. It’s the album’s most outright metal moment, and a reminder that Klimt 1918 were never interested in atmosphere alone.

Their forward-thinking nature made it inevitable that ‘Undressed Momento’ would be only a starting point. In the years that followed, Klimt 1918 pushed steadily outward, releasing three more albums, each markedly different from the previous one, and embracing new textures and sensibilities along the way, drawing from post rock, shoegaze, and indie rock. They folded all of it into a sound that kept evolving without ever losing its emotional core.

As for the fusion between metal and new wave/post-punk, it’s slowly resurfacing in new forms. Bands like Floating or Nel Buio are adopting those influences within death and black metal frameworks, bringing a fresh approach that keeps the music firmly on the heavier side.

CHANCES OF VINYLIZATION: Fairly possible. The album was originally released by the Italian label My Kingdom and later reissued on CD by the German label Prophecy, which Klimt 1918 are still signed to. More recently, their second album ‘Dopoguerra’ (2005) finally received a vinyl release, so it’s plausible that the debut might be next in line.

🟥 Unvinyl is a series of articles about great music not available on vinyl (at the time of writing). A full index can be found here.