I simply love it when the editor-in-chief comes up to me with a new label! Not only does it allow me to be a little more elaborate in my reviews, but also it usually it introduces me to some fairly unknown (and often very good) bands…which is again the case this time around! From what I’ve learned of the My Kingdom Music label up to now (5 albums out, 2 currently in review; also check Rain Paint), they are kinda geared towards renovating, kinda Avantgardistic, Doom/ Goth Metal. In the case of the Italian quartet Klimt 1918 (What’s in a name? Learn –possibly- more in the soon to be published answers to the questionnaire we sent the guys!) there is even more going on. There are Alternative Gothic all right, and Avant-garde sounds, but also some extraordinary New Wave sounds. Not afraid to experiment, the band also use a couple of movie samples (the album starts off with one!). While the influence of The Cure is quite clearly apparent in most of the songs, there is also the album-closing track, where the reminiscences of Anathema (also there in the other songs, but in combination with the one mentioned earlier, and more moderate) creep to the forefront. And where at first I felt the vocalist could do with some lessons in English pronunciation, numerous listening sessions have made his specific voice pattern as unique to this band, as the music itself. The overall sound is one of desolation, melancholy, and (weirdly enough) masterful restraint. Nice album, even if there is still room for the band to grow (mainly in the vocal section). Nice hybrid, and nice (official) debut!