ANTONIUS REX- The Italian Dark Rock ( English Version Special Review)

ANTONIUS REX (Italy) The Dark Zone Special

Although details in this article were provided by Antonius Rex himself to the press at the time, I, as a fan of dark-avantgarde music, can say that I own ALL of their albums and they are apotheotic, well-recorded, sinister, dense, and unlike anything I have ever heard. They surpass Daemonia, Goblin, and King Diamond when it comes to dark atmospheres. In Milan, in 1968, composer Antonio Bartoccetti founded the groups Jacula and Antonius Rex with the aim of transforming into music a series of theological-philosophical and esoteric observations resulting from a close relationship with the mystic Franz Parthenzy. In London, in 1969, Antonio Bartoccetti managed to record the first “embryonic” LP, entitled *In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum*. Realizing that this work would be difficult to market, designer and producer Travers released only a few hundred copies with a simple black-and-white cover, distributing them as a symbolic and magical gift to monasteries, without making any attempt to distribute the LP commercially. In 1972, the same musicians (Bartoccetti on vocals, guitar, and bass; Norton on vocals, piano, and synthesizer; and Tiring on church organ) recorded the second album under the name Jacula, entitled *Tardo Pede In Magiam Versus*. Although the album was qualitatively valid and extremely innovative, it ended up being a commercial failure: Jacula dissolved and was simultaneously reborn as Antonius Rex.

During his military service in 1973, Antonio Bartoccetti conceived a new group and a new album, much of whose material had already been composed by Doris Norton and himself in 1971. In 1974, the two musicians returned to London, where they met Albert Goodman, an aristocrat practicing occultism, a wealthy owner of rural estates with his own castle and independent record label, Darkness, as well as an amateur percussionist. After ten days of intense rehearsals, the three, together with engineer Coldweiss, entered the Mondial Sound studios in Milan, famous for their cutting-edge technology at the time, and recorded the third album (the first as Antonius Rex), entitled *Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex*. Produced by Albert Goodman, the six recorded tracks are typically dark-progressive and meticulous to the point of madness. Albert was delighted with the result and spared no expense in producing the album, which was recorded in only 38 days, plus another ten days for mixing by the excellent engineer Coldweiss. Albert Goodman returned to London with the master tape and released a demo LP with a rather peculiar black-and-white cover, including magical symbols on the front and a “diabolical” letter dated 1624. Albert Goodman was a friend of two directors at Vertigo Records. The label thought the album was excellent but was not convinced about the cover: that cover with those symbols and that letter was simply too much! They even suggested removing the song *Devil Letter*, but the group had no intention of doing so and certainly was not inclined to change anything. Antonio Bartoccetti and Doris Norton laughed heartily about the situation and accepted it as a sign of destiny. Indeed, Giulio Tasnad, the Romanian expert in esotericism, publicly declared in 1975 that anyone who listened to the song *Devil Letter*, read the letter backward on a Friday night, and placed eight of the LP cover symbols on a table would have an almost perfect encounter with the Prince of Darkness.

After this event, however, Antonius Rex lost momentum, record companies became less interested, and the desire to record new music faded away. *Anno Demoni*, which the group defined as a proper document of electronic dark music... the same happened with the album *Ralefun*, recorded in 1979 at Mr. Daniel’s request in Munich: good compositions, but recorded in great haste and without much care, with poor sound quality and mixing. Despite all this, the album *Ralefun* achieved a certain degree of success. The mixing was done without the group's knowledge. After breaking the contract with Emanuele Daniele, the group entered the Zanibelli Regson studios (Milan), equipped with 24 channels, in May 1980 and self-produced, completely independently and creatively, the album entitled *Praeternatural*. This album was a limited edition released by Musik Research, and the musicians sold autographed copies only to fans from all over the world who periodically visited them at their convent-castle. **Discography:** Jacula – *IN CAUDA SEMPER STAT VENENUM* (1969, Gnome, LP) Jacula – *TARDO PEDE IN MAGIAM VERSUS* (1972, The Rogers, LP) Antonius Rex – *NEQUE SEMPER ARCUM TENDIT REX* (1974, Darkness, LP) Antonius Rex – *ZORA* (1977, Tickle, LP) Antonius Rex – *ZORA (II series)* (1978, Tickle, LP) Antonius Rex – *ANNO DEMONI* (1979, MR, LP) Antonius Rex – *RALEFUN* (1979, RCA, LP) Antonius Rex – *PRAETERNATURAL* (1980, MR, LP) Antonius Rex – *MAGIC RITUAL* (2004, BWR, DVD-CD) Antonius Rex – *MAGIC RITUAL* (2005, BWR, LP) Antonius Rex – *SWITCH ON DARK* (2006, BWR – LP-CD-Digipack) Antonius Rex – *PER VIAM* (2009, BWR – LP-CD-CD-ROM Video) How did “CONSCIOUSNESS” arise? In a vast and dark Universe there was free nuclear matter... the possibility of a “catharsis” occurring between them, exploding and generating life, is great. Chaos Theory and Entropy are factors today. And where would Consciousness come from? From evolution through experience in intellectual matter until energy fields that we would call “etheric” were created, grouping this knowledge into monads and individually, just as we do on a computer hard drive. From there, genes and the DNA of each species would be created, forming from information contained in the primordial atomic nucleus. And beings may have advanced tremendously in this state, to the point of appearing as GODS to us and ultimately shaping us in their own image…!!