Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Star-crossed and ill-fated lovers are all the rage in Verona, the Italian home and setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a place of splendour and magnificence, where a first kiss is as nearly as good as a first listen and like Romeo and Juliet’s temptations and maddening joy, everything is made better by the anxious feel of My Last Day to calm all tensions.

Verona may be unfortunate to be straddled and gilded with Shakespeare’s adolescent take on true love but it also has the distinction of being the home of Italian Hard Rock band Closer and whilst nobody should ever knock the Bard of Stratford lest they be deemed furious fools, an hour in the company of Closer’s band members, Simone Rossetto, Andrea Bonomo, Nicola Salvaro, Nicola Peterle and Danilo di Michele, is far more exhilarating than playing nursemaid to two children who have no idea what true love is.

The tragic romance of one of Shakespeare’s most eloquent plays is far removed from the thoughts of Closer, there is no balcony in sight in which to ask if the young male admirer of Verona beauty is true to his word, instead the feeling of sanctity and metal fury come bounding along and has more in common with the tirade of flashing anger and true beauty offered by Cleopatra than that of a young girl’s fancy.

From the moment My Last Day crashes against the ear holes, Closer have the stage all to themselves, the bear of Bohemia, the doomed naysayers and the conniving usurpers to any throne have been dispatched and dealt with and the true house of Closer stands tall.

With tracks such as the excellent Disappear, What Are We Fighting For and the album finisher Everytime I Close My Eyes all hitting the spot with unnerving accuracy, the truth of Shakespeare’s dithering hero’s words ring across the void, the play might not exactly be thing but this music from fair Verona certainly is.

Ian D. Hall