Ponte del Diavolo – De Venom Natura

Turin’s best kept metal secret is back with their second effort, De Venom Natura. We dug in.

Delta nine, C21, H30, O2. Let that sink in, boys and girls. I have let that sink in for over a month and still have no clue as to how to interpret it, but those lyrics are set to one of the weirdest, psychedelic metallic rock you’ll hear all year. It’s still the same occult doom rock I praised the band for back in 2024, but it’s ramped up to eleven. 161, the congregation of the Eternal.

I absolutely loved Fire Blades from the Tomb when it came out. It was weird, it was fun, it was very Italian and the blend of blackened metal with doom and psychedelica was infectious. It did not breach into my top three that year, but in hindsight it should have ended up higher than the number seven position I stuck to it. The band has done extensive touring for Fire Blades from the Tomb and have now finally returned for its follow-up, De Venom Natura.

Compared to the debut, not much has changed in a stylistic way, but De Venom Natura sounds a lot more refined, mature and confident. Storming out of the gates, Every Tongue Has Its Thorns will show you right where it’s at with De Venom Natura, with heavy emphasis on tremolo picking, lots of time signature changing and gnarly gang shouts. Vocalist Erba sounds more menacing than ever. Lunga vita alla necrosi follows and impresses even more. Ponte del Diavolo is always at its best when the lyrics are in Italian, and this is no exception. And with Erba frequently slipping into her more blackened rasps, Lunga vita alla necrosi is a fantastic ride to be on. The same goes for Spirit, Blood, Poison, Ferment! which will lodge itself into your cerebral cortex in no time.

Counting seven songs and clocking in at just under forty minutes, De Venom Natura is a very digestible record with no excess fat on it. Every riff, every drum beat, every note is absolutely on point, and better than it was on the debut album. The weird horn section on Spirit, Blood, Poison, Ferment! is a fantastic expansion on the band’s sound. The theremin making its return on the closing section of Every Tongue Has Its Thorns is fantastic. You also can’t help but love the dreamy, space-like psychedelics of the almost nine minute long Delta-9 (161), and the Bauhaus cover of In the Flat Field is absolutely glorious. I thought The Weeping Song was a clever cover last time, but this one surpasses it easily.

If you like your metal weird, explorative, doomy and very Italian, look no further than Ponte del Diavolo. Where Fire Blades from the Tomb was a triumph of a debut album, De Venom Natura presents a band that knows full well what they’re capable of and what they are doing, making this one of the strongest albums of the year so far.

Buy it here: https://pontedeldiavolo666.bandcamp.com/album/de-venom-natura

Track listing: