We first caught wind of Les Longs Adieux; the Roman band with the French name who earned my avid interest with their excellent 2024 album, “Vertigo.” Their latest single, “La Luna” added a bass player to the duo core of Federica Garenna and Frank Marrelli, to come closer to rocking out. Singer Federica had roots in the Italian Metal scene; a natural for for her powerful voice, so their latest move was a further nod to Rock by adding drums [Alex Gilliani] and a different bass player [Daniele Papele] to make Anna Never. Whose debut album “Serpi In Seno,” was released yesterday. It’s sung in Italian, but don’t let that scare you! Let’s see what’s it’s like.

Anna Never: Serpi In Seno – IT – DL [2025]

1. Mi Prendo l’Eternità 3:54
2. Amore e Morte a Versailles 4:19
3. Vanità 5:30
4. Icaro 4:03
5. Domani 4:54
6. Rumore 3:33
7. Serpi in Seno 4:30
8. Anna 5:05

The album jumped out of the starting blocks with the urgency of “Mi Prendo l’Eternità” as the rhythm section built a tempo for speed while guitarist Morrelli got to indulge in a little tasteful shredding. As ever, the potent voice of Ms. Garenna rode the torrent of the song like a champion. It’s over before we almost got time to catch our breaths with the ringing sustain of Frank’s guitar.

Just from the title alone [surely the best of the year so far] I could not wait to hear “Amore E Morte A Versailles” and the song paid my advance interest in spades. This song was definitely exploring a 1979 space, with the vibe and effects on Morrelli’s guitar harking back to the first Banshees album when John McGeoch really started taking that band places. The foreboding air was abetted by the melodrama of the string synths of Ms. Garenna and as we reached for the song’s climax, Morrelli added a touch of shredding to speed the rush of the song.

“Vanita” added an anthemic touch to the program as the expansive sound this quartet could generate filled the horizon with sound. Matching perfectly with the vigor and fire of Ms. Garenna’s vocals. The touch of sax in the middle eight from Carlo Monaco brought a welcome hint of The Psychedelic Furs to the sound. The next song, “Icaro” also benefited from his sax. The dialogue between the synths and guitar made for a compelling, ringing sound here.

The headstrong double time rhythms that kicked off “Domani” were a different callback to 1979! This time the band were moving in a Judas Priest direction with tightly coiled riffology lending the track plenty of velocity courtesy of Mr. Morrelli. A touch of twangy Morricone guitar on overdub only made the song that much more powerful; and that was before Ms. Garenna brought her formidable pipes to the song! The darkly fatal number took no prisoners as it stormed through the middle of the album. The rhythm section kept the speedpunk of the track afloat. Anything moving this fast couldn’t ever sink. As Morrelli shred his way across the song’s finish line he ceded the win to one last burst of Morricone twang.

The pace stayed sharp for “Rumore,” and Mr. Papale’s bass got some spotlight this time as he anchored the deft number. The storm broke for the surprisingly jaunty title track, where the swing of the song’s beat made this penultimate track a gentle breather for what had been an often relentless pace to the album. Morrelli dialed down the guitar commensurately to come as close as I’d ever heard him come to Jazz as the gentle cascades of notes eddied and swirled around the song.

The album finished off with the Post-Punk of “Anna” with another fast tempo and the sort of deep atmospherics we enjoy from The Chameleons. But the song indulged in some unexpected tempo shifts as Reggae skank vacillated with near headbanging as it wasn’t done with undermining our expectations in the best way possible. Morrelli’s guitar provided a lovely tone here as the expression vocals of Ms. Garenna took us to the song’s climax.

This album made perfect sense along the spectrum of music that had begun last year with “Vertigo” and through the “La Luna” single, sought to move from a 1983 space to a 1979 space. This time incorporating elements of Metal into the Post-Punk mix for spiky, zesty fun. It’s obvious that Garenna and Morrelli want to play in the whole sandbox of Rock and with their talent, why should they settle for anything less? Especially with results this potent? The DL is only £5.00 at Bandcamp and I’m of a mind that maybe I should hit their entire discography for £18.29 since I am enjoying everything I’m hearing from their quarter. DJ hit that button!

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